Ch 20 - Pus of Man
A/N: Oh boy. This chapter. Oh MAN, I have been planning this since book 1, and this will either go on digital paper as epicly as it did in my head, or fail spectacularly, and nothing in between. If you follow RWBY, you know by this point that we're at the end of Volume 4. And you all know what's going down at the end of Volume 4. So, without further adieu, let's light this bonfire, and get this show on the road.
Also, I need to remember to use line breaks more often. I'm gonna have to go back to previous chapters on both the FFN and Ao3 versions to edit in linebreaks at some point.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belonged to RoosterTeeth. I only own my OCs.
(Jaune)
The majority of the trees bordering the forest path the convoy was traversing were dead, and judging by their stature, even before their passing, they were sickly and stunted. A fog sat around them only added to the ominous atmosphere, and Jaune was sure that none of his friends missed how Vyliria's fingers would twitch every so often, hand subconsciously reaching for the hilt of a blade ready to be pulled from her own personal hammerspace (yes, he was still jealous that she had what basically amounted to a videogame inventory in real life) before her mind would catch up to her instinctive actions and stop the movement. Penny's head was on a swivel, green eyes glowing slightly as she used non-visual light spectrums to see further into the fog, and Pyrrha's shoulders were tightened with stress. Jaune's own eyes darted around, and he was sure that further back in the column of civilian refugees from Shion, Ren, Nora, and Azul were equally tense given the atmosphere. Then, suddenly, they broke from the worst of the fog, and visibility opened to the horizon, though the skies were still overcast and said horizons were hazy. A signpost stood ahead at a crossroads, the sign pointing the direction they had approached from reading "Higibana," two to the right reading, "Kuchinashi," and "Mistral," though the now visible path in that direction led up to and over a mountain. The last sign, pointing on the left fork in the path, read "Kuroyuri," and was ominously crossed out.
"Get the others," Vyliria whispered to Penny. "They may know the local geography better." As the gynoid ran back to get the rest of the combatants in their group, the unkindled walked up to the blonde. "Do you feel it too?" she asked the partners.
"That ominous feeling?" Pyrrha clarified.
Vyliria grunted in affirmation. "Something's watching us as we speak, or at the very least clandestinely following us. And to avoid both my and Penny's notice for this long, that something is dangerous to say the least."
Jaune winced, looking down at the dirt as that unpleasant line of thought started cranking the gears of his imaginatio-... oh, shit. "Uh, guys," he croaked out. Pyrrha and Vyliria turned to him, and he merely pointed at the ground.
In the dirt, one among many, was a massive black hoof print, far too big to belong to a horse or other animal native to the region. Vylria stepped up to it, kneeling down, pinching some of the dirt between her fingers and rubbing it to see it fall back to the ground. "I'm not a tracker by any stretch," she said in a low voice, "but I picked up a few things over the years. The dirt's packed, but still loose enough that some of the moisture in the air had time to seep in. Can't give an exact date, but these tracks are less than a week old." She stood up, looking at some of the other hoofprints stretching down the path to Kuroyuri. "The spacing of the prints makes me believe that whatever made them is quadrupedal, and with my luck I'm assuming it's a Grimm, but beyond that, I can't really give you a better idea of what we might be dealing with."
It was as she finished her statement that the rest of the team and Azul arrived. Ren stopped cold as he saw the names on the sign, eyes widening, Nora following suit as she noticed where her partner was looking, but before anyone could ask about that, Azul broke the silence. "What's the holdup?"
"We got a crossroads," Jaune supplied. "The right path goes up and over a mountain, and looks to be a straight shot to Mistral, but we don't have climbing gear, and with the weather like this I have no idea if it's gonna turn into a storm. The civilians won't be able to handle that kind of weather on a mountain, especially if the road is in disrepair or got damaged by a landslide or something."
"And the left path?" Azul questioned.
"From what we can see, it looks like it goes through flat terrain, but we also found some recent Grimm tracks heading in that direction," Jaune responded.
Ren looked down at said tracks, and he froze once more, a haunted look marring his visage, before he fell to his knees. "No…" he muttered. Nora gasped and put a hand to her mouth, but kept on her feet.
"Ren? Nora?" Penny looked on with concern as she spoke. "What is it?"
Ren's hands shook, his colors dulling as Tranquility washed over him for a few seconds, before they brightened and he clenched his fists. "Kuroyuri was where I was born and raised," he said after a few more seconds. "It's where I met Nora. And it's where I watched everything I'd ever known get ripped away and destroyed in a single night, nearly entirely by a single Grimm. Neither of us got a good look at it, but we both remember its screams, the sounds of its hooves against the cobblestone…"
"And those prints in the ground," Nora finished, as she raised a shaking finger towards the damning indentations in the dirt. Jaune swallowed, Penny tensed, Pyrrha shuffled from foot to foot nervously, and both Azul and Vyliria gave an exasperated swear, providing yet another reminder that stuff like this was Tuesday to her. Though true to her familiarity with adversity, Jaune was also reminded how different his unkindled friend was when she shook it off the fastest.
"So, we're dealing with what is most likely a single Grimm that's at least a decade old, and likely at least two or more times that if it could destroy an entire village nearly on its own, that literally destroyed your childhoods, likely slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of people, and we know that it's traveled towards the ruins of where you were born sometime in the last week. And between us all, we have a bit shy of two-hundred civilians that will be a liability rather than an asset, one huntsman, a combat-ready gynoid, a Beacon team with a good grasp on magic yet barely out of their first year, and myself. Fucking wonderful," Vyliria dryly concluded.
"What are we going to do?" Pyrrha questioned.
"We can't go through the mountain," Vyliria responded, drawing Jaune's attention once more. "We know it's gone towards Kuroyuri recently, but we don't know if it's looped back since then, and is waiting for us in ambush with a height advantage. A Grimm this old will know how to use rudimentary tactics."
"Then what do we do?" Nora asked.
"One person stays behind to protect the villagers. The rest of us track it, and lure it out away from the noncombatants. If it was just us, we might be able to sneak past it entirely, but there's no way several hundred civilians," and said civilians were murmuring behind them, "who are already nervous, and a chunk of which aren't even near peak physical condition, are going to evade its notice."
"You're the team," Azul addressed them all. "If I couldn't handle some bandits, I'm not going to be able to stop that thing, and you'd coordinate better without having to worry about incorporating me into the equation. Just, please stay safe kids." Vyliria tilted her head and crossed her arms. "Kids and unkindled," he begrudgingly amended.
"And how are we going to lure it out? Especially when there will be six of us versus a village's worth of people already halfway to panicking?" Ren asked in a weary voice, though resolve at the prospect of finally facing down his childhood demon was beginning to creep into his tone.
The Irithyllian jerked a thumb at herself. "Walking sob-story, remember?" She gave a self deprecating laugh that caused Penny to take a step forwards with a look of concern on her face. "Once we get there, I'll just reminisce on all my dead friends and family for a bit. It'll be a godsdamned all-you-can-eat buffet for any nearby Grimm."
"That's not funny," Jaune answered.
"Neither is everyone dying because we couldn't get this thing to come to us before it decided Shion would make a nice snack." She didn't wait for a reply, already starting towards Kuroyuri. The rest of VAAPPR began to walk after her to catch up. Jaune was stopped briefly as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Azul.
"Good luck," he offered.
"Thanks," the knight replied.
They were probably gonna need it.
(Vyliria)
Kuroyuri was in ruins. The various buildings, crafted in the Mistralian style that reminded Vyliria of the far Eastern Kingdoms from the Age of Fire, were husks of their former selves, quite a few being burned out to boot. She idly wondered if one of the structures she could see was the one that housed Ren in the past. Weeds poked through the cracks in the stone roads, and a dried out canal ran through part of the long-dead village. In the center of the abandoned settlement was a courtyard of sorts, a massive square of flat, open terrain, a floor made of polished flagstones, one end bearing a dead tree that still easily towered twice as tall as any of its cousins in the surrounding forest, and the other end bearing a tower of stone that rose even higher.
"So, uh, how exactly are you gonna do this?" Nora asked the Irythillian as VAAPPR set up in the town center.
Vyliria sighed, already knowing what she was going to do, but not looking forward to it. "I deliberately dredge up and focus on some of my most painful memories, and then Ren uses his semblance on me to snap me out of it. If the Grimm doesn't show up in a few minutes, we repeat until it does."
Penny looked on with concern "Do you really have to?" the gynoid questioned.
"Does anyone here have any better ideas?" she looked around, getting naught but silence from her allies. "Alright then. Here we go." She sat down, pulling down her hood, and taking a breath in as she focused on memories she typically buried as far in her psyche as she could manage.
The corpse of a short man wearing the hood that the thralls of Lothric adorned, curled in the fetal position in a pool of his own blood, head still slightly tilted to gaze upon the burning skies above the decrepit castle which housed the twin Princes Lothric and Lorian. Vyliria knelt at the corpse of a man who had done his best to help her for so little in return, who had made her promise to stay safe before daring to brave the dangers of Lothric Castle in search of weapons and materials that could be of use to the unkindled. Greirat, who had naught but compassion in his heart, as even in undeath, he'd stolen from the rich to give to the poor, until there was no-one left, and he'd offered his services to the first person to find him languishing in a cell. He'd still clung to that purpose, even as she began to see the signs of him hollowing after his jaunt to Irithyll, until he'd met his final death here. She clenched her fists, a few tears running from tired eyes as yet another friend fell during this damned quest to prolong a dying flame.
She took in a shuddering breath.
Orbeck, the man who'd she'd practically run her own miniature school of sorcery with. He'd chosen to leave after they'd scoured the kingdom for every spell they could find. If she'd had even the slightest inkling that he'd intended to head to the Grand Archives of Lothric Castle, she'd have warned him of the dangers, of the cursed books that sought the vitality of those who'd read them, unless your head was dunked in the pools of wax scattered about as a means to safeguard against those very same tomes. As it was, his corpse was in a seat, a book still clasped in one hand due to rigor mortis, another one open on the table in front of him, and his head slumped back. One could almost mistake him for merely having fallen asleep during his studies, were it not for the desiccated state of his body, how his eyes had rotted away, leaving sunken, empty sockets.
A tear rolled down her cheeks.
The pair of keening wails of lament, as two sisters in all but blood mourned the death of their family. She clung to Yorhska as tightly as she clung to her, the burning memory of Gwyndolin's final words seared into her mind even deeper than the darksign that seared her flesh. Her cries in the Cathedral after Aldrich was slain, how her fellows and her other surrogate sibling, Siris, had helped her unresponsive legs walk out of that damned cathedral, down the spiral staircase, over the unseen path, and brought that terrible news to someone who had only wanted to see who she's believed to be her brother after all this time. And how she still hated herself for not having the resolve to tell Yorshka the truth, that Gwyndolin was her father, and how she couldn't bring herself to tell her about the small blue flame she'd hidden away, because she'd known Yorshka would have asked for it, and she'd known she'd have given it to her, and how giving it away would have left her a broken shell, just waiting for the hollowing to take her.
More tears joined the first.
Siris' corpse was sprawled before her, a chunk of her spine ripped out by the Mad Knight Hodrick, her own gods-damned grandfather, just to be added to the pile he kept in the Pit of Hollows. Why hadn't Siris just told her where she was going? What she had intended to do? Who she intended to confront? Vyliria would have raised her sword to Siris' aid in a heartbeat, and now she was dead, gone, another piece of her family taken from her by this cursed world. Her teeth and fists alike clenched, embers washing down one arm, coalescing into Friede's Greatscythe, the hand on the opposite arm bursting with black flames. Her eyes opened, and she rose to her feet, even as the tears continued to fall. A proper burial could wait. The man responsible for this still drew breath. It was time she rectified that particular mistake.
Another shuddering breath sucked in, barely held back from escaping as a sob.
Vyliria refused to look back. She wouldn't be able to keep walking if she did. She forced one foot in front of the other, forced her heart to ignore the pleading cries from Yorshka for her to stay, to not throw away her unlife by snuffing the First Flame, to not leave her alone once again, -
A screech sounded in the distance, and the pain dulled nigh-instantly as Ren hastily slapped a hand on her shoulder and applied his semblance. She swallowed, bottling down the memories and forcing them back to where she always held them, wanting to forget but too scared to do so. A few more seconds passed, and she nodded to Ren, who let go, and she stood up. A pleading look from Penny received a nod as a response, and Vyliria let the gynoid give her a hug.
"I think that got it's attention," Jaune muttered.
"Good," Vyliria spat while Penny stepped back and moved away to deploy her blades for battle. "Because if it didn't, I'm going to shove my sword up its arse for making me relive that in such detail for nothing."
"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked her, and she heard Nora whisper to Jaune "Do Grimm even have buttholes?" somewhere out of view.
"No." A pause, and then she added, "But I'll deal with it. I always have…" And then on a whim, she addressed the ginger bomber of the team with, "If you actually managed to stay awake during Port's lectures, you'd know that possession of that anatomy depends on the breed of Grimm. Generally, ones similar to real animals, mammals especially, tend to have a rudimentary parody of a digestive tract, anus included, but more esoteric ones or those who bear a resemblance to invertebrates lack them with very few exceptions." Nora at least had the decency to blush at the blunt reply.
Any conversation was cut off by the sound of hooves clopping against stone, and the group readied themselves as they faced where the sound was coming from. A wind began to pick up, clearing the lingering fog in the area, and the first sign of their foe was the glowing red eyes of a Grimm becoming visible as the mist dissipated. The black beast was an equine of sorts, its back two legs bearing sharp, white hooves, and the front two ending in white, two-toed claws. In the place where a ribcage and organs would be was an empty cavity, blackened flesh running where the approximate area of a spine would be, but actual bleached-white ribs sticking out into the open air where skin and fur would cover the torso of an actual horse. The tail was likewise parodied by bone, and small spikes rested on the backs of its leg-joints. The front half of the head was bare bone, resembling the skull of a horse, red eyes glaring hate at the party, and one pair of otherwise flat teeth replaced by very sharpened fangs. At the center of the back of the equine Grimm, almost being dragged along, lay a humanoid torso, long arms ending in two-taloned hands dragging on the floor as the horse walked. The torso itself had several arrows of varying ages sunken into the back of its flesh, curved bone spines mixed among the spent ammunition following the approximate pattern of vertebrae, and another empty ribcage parodied that of a human on its front, two bone plates armoring what would otherwise be pectoral muscles. The bottom half of its head was unarmored, but the top half was fashioned of bone, and resembled some kind of demented imp with horns, red, glowing marking patterned along both the face and the horns, an ominous red glow emitting from both its beady eyes and the approximation of a mouth that was held half-shut by strings of black Grimm-flesh that ran between its jaws.
If memory from Professor Port's mostly useless classes served, this particular strain of Grimm was known as a Nuckelavee. Though something appeared off, and Vyliria tensed. The Grimm appeared to be in pain, the horse half limping, and the imp giving off the impression of being sickly. She took a closer look as it came to a stop across the town center. And then she saw it. Among the dark flesh that made up the Grimm, on the back of the imp, hidden among the arrows and bone-spines, were a handful of blackened, writhing tendrils, appearing to be made of a material far more fluid than the rest of the Grimm. A material that was suddenly starting to twitch and move, almost as if sensing the mortals nearby. Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to shout a warning as the sheer impossibility of what she was seeing finally registered in her mind-
The imp flopped forwards limply, and a massive burst of blacked fluid, akin to rotten pus, exploded from its back. The tendrils shot out, rapidly doubling in size and then doubling again, still growing further as they twisted around each other and congealed. Some of the substance wrapped about the torso of the imp, as if to anchor itself, yet none moved to impede the motions of its arms. The rest began to blob into a more coherent shape behind and above the Grimm, resembling that of a serpent. Further back, it tapered off into a facsimile of a tail, and in the direction facing VAAPPR, they bulged out wider, forming into a mass resembling a head, a few white, branchlike spines of bone growing out of the serpent seemingly at random. Halfway along its "body," more tendrils burst out, going for a few feet before twisting, forming a joint, and continuing, before splitting apart to form a massive, three taloned hand. The liquid material from slightly before the "elbow" of the arm began to pale, congealing to a more solid, gray substance. The front of the "head" split open on a horizontal line, a mouth with glowing red insides forming in seconds. Above the demonic maw, a pair of baleful red eyes emerged from the black mass.
The new third head of the beast writhed around in the air for a few seconds, before twisting and focusing on the beings arrayed before it. The horse's head snorted, forwards left leg pawing at the ground. The imp twitched, rising up to a straight position, adding another couple of feet to the already imposing height of the beast erupting from its back, and its arms twitched, pulling in towards its body. Its head tilted to the side, mouth opening in a horrifying grin, and then the serpent coming from its back slammed its one arm to the ground, leaning forwards as it opened its mouth and screeched at them. Its wail caused auras to flare, the party flinching as the sound literally assaulted their eardrums.
"Pus of Man!" the Irithyllian screamed, and then all Izalith broke loose as the combatants started to move. She was already sprinting towards its side, the beast seeming to take a focus on her to begin with. The imp reared back one arm, and then thrust it towards her, the impossibilities of Grimm biology allowing the limb to stretch to ridiculous proportions, and she barely jumped over the clawed talon as it impacted the ground and sent stone flying. Getting her footing, her eyes widened as its other arm flew out at her, and she rolled ahead of the limb by mere inches, willing embers to her left arm and retaliating with a burst of explosive bolts as soon as Gael's repeating crossbow coalesced into her hand. Her attempts to set the Pus of Man alight failed as the abyssal parasite raised its own arm to block the barrage.
Floating Array cut into the horse's flanks, Penny having been the second person to send an attack at the Grimm, only for the Pus to slam its hand into the ground, providing a pivot point for the horse to twist, rear hooves lashing out and sending the girl flying with a yelp. Pink explosions erupted along the body of the Pus, and the serpent snapped its gaze to Nora, arm sliding across the stone at a ludicrous speed and knocking the ginger bomber off her feet as well. Taking the initiative, the Grimm began to gallop forwards, in order to prevent the team from surrounding it. The imp's arms launched out again, and Pyrrha and Ren jumped over and dodged them, respectively, while Jaune rolled to the left to avoid the charge of the horse, raising Crocea Mors to attack the beast's left side. Only, the Pus atop the amalgamate leaned down, using its own head as a gigantic bludgeon to slam the blond knight into the ground. The serpent withdrew itself from the site of impact, opening its maw and diving down again, only for a black glow to surround Jaune's armor as Pyrrha used her Polarity to yank him out of the way, before helping him to his feet.
The parasite's head snapped up, eyes locking to the partners, and it opened its maw once more, letting out another ungodly shriek, loud enough that Vyliria could see the air being distorted by the passage of the soundwaves. Both of them fell to their knees as they clamped their hands to their ears and their aura's flared, and the imp readied its arms to fling them at the stationary targets. Vyliria closed in with the abomination, driving the Moonlight greatsword deep into the flank of the horse, and the imp whipped around as the Grimm that served as its means of locomotion screeched in pain, while at the same time Ren began to hose the front of the creature with gunfire from StormFlower. Its right arm instead snapped onto the Irithyllian's head, grabbing her and pulling, only the unkindled's extensive experience with being violently manhandled by things multiple times her size allowing her to hold her weapon long enough that it was yanked out of the beast before it threw her at Ren. The man rolled to the side of his teammate-turned-projectile, hearing a strained "FUCK!" as she flew by, only for the right arm to fly out and snatch him, slamming him into the wall of the same building that Vyliria had crashed into. Ren struggled to get out of its grip whilst Vyliria put in an equal effort to extricate herself from the wall she'd been embedded in, and the imp drew back its left arm once more.
"Hey ugly!" Nora shouted, and the Pus and imp both turned in tandem with the rest of the team to see Nora, holding onto one of the blades of Floating Array, which Penny had bunched together to resemble the basket of an impromptu catapult, "Eat hammer!" At that point, Penny spun, dragging her weapons and Nora with her, before launching the ginger bomber right at the abomination, Magnhild smashing into the serpent's head and causing it to snap back from the impact, as well as the arm pinning Ren to retract. At the same time, the gynoid shifted her weapons to a much more familiar circular configuration, a green light building as she charged a laser and then let it fly at the horse. The green beam carved into the flesh towards the front of the Grimm, and both it and the rider screeched in agony, but the serpent atop them merely shook off its disorientation, slamming its hand into the ground and leaning towards Penny as its head twisted to the side and its "throat" began to swell.
"Penny, move!" Vyliria screamed, and without hesitation her partner stopped the laser and complied, eyes widening as the bulge reached the front of the Pus, and it opened its mouth to spray out a torrent of a black, abyssal, tar-like substance. Penny got clear of most of the liquid as it splattered harmlessly on the ground, but a decent amount splashed against her legs and she gave a surprised shout as she fell to the ground.
"My legs won't respond!" she shouted with fear in her tone as black crystals began to grow from the abyssal bile that was covering her lower extremities.
With the bite of a lance yet the speed of a sparrow,
The maidens of the Lord smote them with their Lighting Arrows!
Two voices cried out in tandem, electric bolts striking the horse and imp, and the monstrosity turned towards Jaune and Pyrrha, even as Nora shifted her weapon back into its grenade launcher configuration, and added the weight of her own fire to the barrage. Ren grabbed Vyliria's wrist, pulling her the rest of the way out of the wall, before turning back to their foe. "Go help Penny. We'll distract it," he shot out, an uncharacteristic undertone of anger present in his voice. Ren went to holster one of his twin weapons and go for his sorcery staff, but Vyliria cut him off by gripping his free arm.
"The Pus of Man, the thing on the Grimm's back, is highly resistant to hexes. It'll partly extend to the Grimm. Unless you can get an opportunity to cleanly sever a limb with dark edge, you'll be better served sticking with StormFlower." Ren narrowed his gaze but nodded, and ran off to rejoin the fight. In the meantime, Vyliria sprinted over to her downed partner. "For gods' sake Penny, wipe it off! Wipe off as much as you can!" Penny suited actions to words, using several of her blades to start scraping the goo off, which came off surprisingly easily, all things considered, and Vyliria began to snap off the black curse crystals where they'd begun to grow on Penny's legs.
"What is that thing?" Penny asked, her legs beginning to regain their full range of motion as they continued to remove the blackened material coating them.
"That thing is a Pus of Man!" Vyliria shouted, making herself heard over the din of battle, for the benefit of the rest of VAAPPR. "A physical, parasitic manifestation of the Abyss. It hits like a truck, is highly aggressive, very flexible, and its vomit can curse you, so do not let it puke on you!"
"Wasn't planning on getting covered in upchuck anyways!" Nora half-sarcastically shouted back, even as she rolled out of the way of another attempted strike from the imp's arms.
The unkindled helped Penny up, having finally wiped the Pus' bile off her legs, and as soon as she was sure her partner could stand on her own, she turned back towards the abomination with hate in her eyes. She reared back her hand, pyromancy flame crackling to life, and added with an almost sadistic glee, "And they really hate fire!"
The chaos bed vestige sailed straight and true, impacting the Pus in a glorious burst of flame, the whole serpent lighting up in seconds, the parasite writhing and screaming in agony as everything above the imp, save its arm, burned. However, before they could capitalize on its vulnerability, the imp twitched violently, stretching its arms out before beginning to fully rotate its entire torso, arms violently whirling around it in an offensive manner of protection. Ren was too close and got knocked arse-over-tea-kettle, and Nora, Jaune, and Pyrrha barely got back from the attack, only for the horse to barrel forwards and knock them aside anyways. As it came to a stop on the other side of the town center, the Pus bulged, blackened fluid spraying out of its exterior and dousing the flames, the serpent glaring at VAAPPR before opening its maw and letting out yet another ungodly scream that was powerful enough to trigger their auras in order to prevent auditory damage.
"We need to surround it!" Jaune shouted as he leapt back to his feet. "Give it too many directions of attack to manage at once! Spread out!"
The young huntsmen and huntresses scattered as they complied, Vyliria getting its attention with a quick cast of a crystal soul spear from an equally rapidly-drawn Izalith staff, before replacing it with her Black Knight shield as she saw the Pus of Man prepare to spew once again. Ducking behind the scorched titanite, she let the bile impact against the metal, raising her protection just a second too late to react to the Pus' hand reaching out to grab her. It picked her up, raising to slam her into the ground, -
The dragons swarmed in endless hordes,
Against them stood the first of the Lords,
Gwyn brought his personal wrath upon his hated foes,
Each glowing white lance laying an Everlasting low,
And all across the battlefield the wyrms did quake in fear,
As the great Lord smote them all with his Sunlight Spears!
-only for Pyrrha to finish casting the miracle she'd been preparing, changing her aim from the imp to the parasite grabbing her friend. Gwyn's wrath crashed into the arm, battering the Pus and forcing it to drop the Irithyllian. Jaune, weapon glowing white with the blessings devised by Lothric's clerics, carved a rent into the horse's side. In response, the beast pivoted on its front legs, bucking out at the blond knight, who raised his shield in time to tank the blow, skidding backwards against the ground but keeping his footing. Ren began to unload bullets against the imp, whilst Penny bunched her swords into four groups to fire smaller lasers at a more rapid pace. The imp launched an arm at her, only for the gynoid to hastily reposition a pair of blades and fling them backwards, allowing the strings attached to them to drag her out of the way of the attack in the nick of time. Turning, the imp then threw both arms towards Ren, each one latching onto one of his twin weapons, and the stoic man engaged in a struggle against the Grimm. Even as the imp struggled against him, though, it began to twitch once again, mouth beginning to stretch, even against the tendrils of blackened flesh that kept its jaws partly sealed together. Pyrrha and Nora both charged in to engage the Nuckelavee, the Mistralian rolling out of the way of a slam of the Pus' hand, and the ginger leaping over that same hand as it swept along the ground.
Then the imp's jaw fully unhinged, the flesh sealing it tearing apart with a wet rip, and it unleashed a shriek almost as deafening as the ones that the Pus had been uttering. Its hands picked up Ren by the weapons he was still holding, tossing him across the town's center, and then the Pus' head snapped down at Nora, who attempted to evade, only for the maw of the parasite to snap shut on the head of Magnhild. The horse began to move forwards, and the imp spun its arms once more, forcing the party back even as the Pus lifted Nora up, maw clamping shut even further as the sound of metal crunching was heard, whilst its arm grabbed the ginger and began to squeeze. Nora's cry of pain was immediately followed by a furious bellow from Ren, Vyliria looking over to see him charging straight towards the whirlwind of arms with his pupils shrunk to pinpricks that belied a rage that the Irihtyllian had never before seen from the man. He dodged through the spinning arms of the imp with flawless precision, leaping onto the back of the horse and sinking the blades of StormFlower into the abyssal matter of the Pus right where it emerged from the imp's back. The creature opened its maw, crying out in pain, letting the mangled head of Nora's weapon free, where the now-broken hammer unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Its arm slammed Nora into the cobblestone, before flinging her in an underhanded toss that left the woman's pink aura flickering as it struggled to stay up. The abyssal flesh of the Pus began to writhe and bulge, and Penny proved to have an even quicker reaction than Vyliria, throwing a quartet of swords past the Nuckelavee and anchoring them into the tower in the village center, pulling herself forwards and grabbing Ren as she passed, yanking him off the Grimm a second before black bile erupted in an explosion that the rest of the team barely managed to avoid. Yet not a second after being removed from the danger, Ren shook himself free of Penny's grip, once more charging down his literal childhood demon. The beast turned around, barrelling towards the man who's parent's it had slain. He leapt over a swipe from the Pus' hand, jumped to the side of a slam from its head, and backflipped out of the way of one arm from the imp, only for the other to latch around his ankle, swinging him in an arc before tossing him to land next to Nora, who was just now pushing herself to her feet.
Recognizing the kind of rage Ren was displaying, a rage that sapped all sense of reason and self-preservation from one's mind, that she herself had fallen victim to a few times over her unlife, Vyliria addressed the ginger that was partnered to him. "Nora, snap Ren out of this shit before he gets himself killed!" They met eyes for half a second before she turned and ran back into the fray.
(Nora)
Nora rose to her feet, taking one glimpse at the crushed form of her beloved hammer and taking a moment to wonder how in the world none of the grenades inside of it had detonated when the Pus crushed it. Or maybe they had and the Pus was just so stupidly durable that its closed mouth negated the explosions so effectively that it didn't even harm the rest of her hammer beyond what damage the Pus itself had caused. Then she turned and tackled Ren, sending them both beneath a raised ruin of a house, StormFlower clattering to the ground as he lost his grip in surprise. Ren immediately scrambled back to his feet, seemingly not even noticing, eyes only locked on the enemy. Honestly a bit hurt by that, Nora looked down, her bangs obscuring her vision, but she still reached out and grabbed his wrist before he could get away.
He tugged against her. "Nora, let go!" She held on. "Nora, they're going to-" she backhanded his face with her other hand.
Nora raised her head and looked at him with tears brimming in her eyes. "No," she said in a low voice. "I'm not going to let you get yourself killed by this thing." The angry look in his eyes melted away, rapidly replaced by concern. "Not after everything we've been through." Not before I can tell you how I feel. "Not like this."
Ren looked down at the ground, and sighed. He reached to his thigh, grabbing a knife that he had always kept sheathed, given to him by his father on that terrible night. He stared at the blade for a few moments, before Nora put her own hand on his. "We can do this," she said, resolute in her tone. Ren looked back up and met her eyes-
-and Vyliria crashed into the building they were beneath, before falling out of the wall and flopping onto the ground a few feet away from them. Her black aura flickered, and then fizzled out. "Ooooowwww…" she wheezed. She coughed a few times, Nora's eyes widening as black droplets hit the ground beneath the unkindled. She opened her mouth to ask about the very likely damage that had just occurred to Vyliria's lungs, but the Irithyllian then shifted her head to look at them, and even as she got back up, added in a wet voice, "Oh, is Ren good yet? Jaune just came up with a plan and we kinda need you both for it."
Nora looked over to Ren once more, and he nodded. "We're ready. Uh, are you okay though?"
She waved a hand and took a sip of estus, sounding perfectly fine the very first word after that. "Bah, I've been through worse. Ren, go to Jaune, he'll fill you in while Penny and Pyrrha keep it focused on them for a few seconds." Ren nodded, and Nora watched as he ran off.
The ginger bomber herself winced, and hesitantly began with a, "Uh, it kinda broke Magnh-" Fire raced down Vyliria's arm, and Nora went silent as Ledo's greathammer thunked into the stone, Vyliria leaning the handle towards her. "Are you serious?!"
"Yeah. Just remember to Call to Stone so it hits harder."
Still upset by her own weapon's state, she was nonetheless very excited about being allowed to use Vyliria's biggest blunt instrument of death, and grabbed onto the hilt with both hands, pulling on it to hoist the massive weapon up into a usable grip. Only… it didn't budge. Nora's eyes widened, and she planted both feet on the ground and pulled again. It moved about an inch closer to her, but still didn't lift from the floor. "How do you even lift this thing!?" she shouted.
"I invested a lot of souls into increasing my strength, and even then, I can only wield it with both hands." Vyliria sucked in a breath, both girls well aware that they didn't exactly have a lot of time. "Right then. Sorry about this in advance."
Nora blinked in confusion. "Sorry about wha-" and then Nora Valkyrie took a lightning urn to the forehead. Recoiling backwards a few steps, she cried out, "Gah! What the fuck, Vyliria!?" And then Nora realized she took a lightning urn to the forehead. The potted, potent electricity, aged like fine wine, raced through her veins, and her eyes snapped open as her face adopted a gleeful expression, hands reaching back down to lift Ledo's Greathammer, though it still took some effort. She glanced back at Vyliria, who merely shrugged, grabbing the Moonlight Greatsword from where it had been when she dropped it after slamming into the wall.
"I already apologized, and you seem to be enjoying it too." She gestured to the tower on the opposite side of the square. "Get to the top. You'll know what to do. Just aim for the Pus' head." And without another word, the Irhythillian ran back into the fray.
Nora took a breath, and shifted her grip on the hammer, unwilling to admit that even now, it was still difficult to even lift, though her semblance was letting her manage. She bolted past the fight, neither the Grimm nor the creature of the Abyss taking notice of her as it furiously did its best to murder her teammates. She got to the base of the tower, and crouched her legs, pumping in as much aura and electricity-provided strength as she felt she could afford, and then leapt. It was a close thing, but she got one hand on the ledge of the top of the tower, tossing the greathammer over the lip, and then hoisting herself up before grabbing it again. She looked back down, and saw Vyliria roll out of the way of one of the imp's arms, and then the horse charging at her, positioning the Grimm right below the ginger bomber, before booking it back to Pyrrha and Jaune. The latter of who (whom? She wasn't sure) had laid down and had a hand on one of her ankles, pumping his semblance to boost the former of the pair. Ren was unloading on its torso and forcing it to use first one arm, and then the other as an impromptu shield, and Penny was doing a great job on her own of distracting the Pus. As the unkindled got to her destination, embers rippled down her form, her hood disappearing and her armor swapping to something much more metallic with a weathered red cape, and a crest Nora couldn't recognize (a very uneducated guess said it might be from Lothric - the kingdom, not the person). She reached Pyrrha, one gauntleted hand grabbing onto Pyrrha's and then the crimson-haired champion grabbed it with her other hand, her whole body glowing as she put a ridiculous amount of Aura-Amped power into her Polarity. Pyrrha then pivoted in a full spin, taking the Irithyllian with the motion (which Nora realized was why Jaune was on the ground), before magnetically throwing the unkindled at a ludicrous speed, too fast for their foe to react. Vyliria sailed forwards like a literal bullet, Moonlight Greatsword used as an impromptu ballista bolt as it stabbed into the horse's skull, and then kept going, until it was embedded in the Grimm to the hilt, before Vyliria backflipped off the Nuckelavee. The horse dropped dead immediately, but the imp and the Pus of Man atop it were still very much not so, and the former immediately raised its arms to avenge its steed.
Its left arm shot out first, only for the blades of Floating Array to come in like a buzzsaw, Penny having waited for that exact moment to sever the limb. The imp shrieked in response, and the Pus raised its own arm, only for Vyliria to throw both her palms forwards, a savage grin on her face as she unleashed a twin streams of pyromantic flames at it, causing it to suddenly recoil and writhe in agony as it light up like a fireworks show. The imp got its bearings, and threw its remaining arm out at Vyliria, who twirled to the side at the last second, before reaching out and grabbing its hand, pulling on it with her not inconsiderable strength, and actually managing to keep it outstretched for a pair of seconds. However, that was all the time she needed, as Renny ran in and cast dark edge, the massive sorcerous sword severing the imp's other appendage. Not a second later, Jaune literally flew at it, Pyrrha having also used her boyfriend as a rudimentary projectile. He crashed into the imp's chest, his entire body glowing white as he used his semblance on himself, grabbing the horns on its head, and giving out a yell as he put all of his strength into twisting it, and Nora heard the crack as its neck snapped even from atop the tower, before Jaune scrambled off and rolled behind Vyliria and her braced Black Knight shield just in time to avoid the Pus dowsing it's flaming body with its own bile-sweat. And with the Pus being the only thing left to kill, Nora took that as her cue.
She leaned backwards, tilting off the tower and closing her eyes for half a second, before they opened and she grinned. She fell like a bolt of lightning, holding Ledo's greathammer out and spinning, the motion causing the massive weapon to collide with the tower as she dropped, the masonry sticking to the head of the weapon as she went. And with a final twirl, she slammed the head of Ledo's greathammer straight into the Pus of Man's noggin, knocking a massive dent into its head while the stone blasted off the hammer like shrapnel, doing even further damage. She leapt off the creature, landing and taking a few steps back. The eye on one side of its head had gone dark, but amazingly the other still dimly glowed, staring straight at her, and Nora felt her blood run cold as she realized that there was a malevolent intelligence in that gaze, enough to recognize the one who had wounded it so. Its hand pushed into the earth, and that monstrous head rose a handful of inches off the ground, and then the tower, already old and decrepit, and now missing a wall, gave up the ghost and a significant chunk of it fell down on top of the monster, finally putting it down. It gave one last weak screech, and then fell silent, the whole thing beginning to evaporate into foul-smelling black mist along with the Nuckelavee, and a coiled sword, heated to the point where parts of it glowed red, in a mound of dust and ash that some part of Nora somehow knew was once human bone, burst into existence a in a flash of flame a few feet in front of the fading corpse.
A few seconds passed in mostly silence, the only sound a hissing as the black cloud of smoke rising into the air grew in proportion to the dissipation of their fallen foe's corpse(s?), and a black flame that was probably a soul manifested nearby, before Nora gave a whoop of joy as she let go of Ledo's greathammer and ran towards Ren, tackling him in a hug. Pyrrha and Jaune also embraced, and Penny was beaming as Vyliria let a grin of her own best her facial expression, Nora taking a handful of seconds away from her hug to watch the spectacle of Vyliria strolling up to the new bonfire, raising a hand above the coiled sword, and sending a spark from her being to light it. As the flame at the base of the coiled sword began to gently crackle and pop, the unkindled turned around, mouth opening to say what was likely to be a congratulatory statement-
-and the rest of the tower also collapsed, one stray piece of masonry crashing straight into Vyliria's auraless skull with a wet crunch.
Complete silence, before her corpse lifelessly flopped over to the ground, black blood and gray-matter spilling out of the fatal wound. Nora let go of Ren, sitting up as she gazed in horror. Ren himself turned over after a few seconds of looking, and she heard him throw up.
"Vyliria!" Penny screamed, running to her best friend's body just as the darksign on her back shoulder flared so bright as to be visible through her armor, and the body began to evaporate into ash. She fell to her knees and started sobbing.
"I'm sorry!" Nora turned to look at Pyrrha, who was now crying, when seconds before she'd been elated. "I should have noticed and pulled her out of the way with my semblance! This is my fault! I'm a terrible friend!"
"Pyrrha," Jaune said, voice heavy and tears in his own eyes, but somehow keeping it together when Nora herself was already silently unleashing the waterworks from her own tear ducts. "None of us could have seen that coming. It's not your fault. A-and she just lit that bonfire. Vyliria will come back right here. We… we just have to wait."
Nora just stared at the space where her friend was, feeling completely devastated. Pyrrha was wrong, because this was her fault. She'd used Ledo's greathammer on the tower, and caused it to fall, which led to Vyliria's most recent death. This was all her fault, and she just sat there, numb.
Seconds later, the gentle crackling of the bonfire suddenly flared to a raging blaze, Nora raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sudden change in brightness. But beneath the shield of her own arm, she saw an armored gauntlet suddenly burst from the fire and slap onto the ground, just before the flames surged even more as they spat out Vyliria's other arm, head, and torso, as the unkindled dragged the rest of herself out of the flames, which then began to dim back down to what they were previously. Vyliria crawled a couple more feet across the ground before coming to a stop and twisting to put her back on the ground, taking in a breath- and then screaming in agony, the sound wounding Nora more than the Nuckelavee ever could. Fire rippled along her body for a few seconds before dying down, and her screams shortly followed, and she laid where she was, breathing heavily.
Penny sprung to her feet, running over, and reaching to help Vyliria up, before stopping herself a second later and hesitantly asking, "Vyliria? Is it okay if I help you up?"
The Irithyllian groaned, cracking her eyes open and blinking a few times, before seeming to focus. "Y-yeah."
Penny hoisted her to her feet in a second, the unkindled talking a second as she nearly lost her balance from standing up so soon after resurrecting, but she managed. "Can… can I give you a hug?"
Vyliria stiffened, before raising her arms and letting her breath out. "Sure." Penny hesitantly wrapped her arms about her friend's torso, and the taller woman swallowed before placing one hand on Penny's shoulder and doing her best to comfort her as she began to sob once more. "Gods fucking damnit," she spat out, and everyone flinched at the annoyed anger in her tone. "That has to be the single most embarrassing death I've had that I can remember! What fucking horse shit! Brained by a bloody fucking brick after the giant monster was dead? At least I came back pretty quick… I think. Can anyone tell me how much time has passed?" At the lack of a response, she paused, confused, and looked around at the expressions on everyone's faces, then looked down at Penny again, seemingly just realizing she's having an emotional breakdown while clinging to her. "Uh, why are you all so upset?"
Nora stared incredulously. "You died again!" she blurted out.
"Yeah? That's the norm for me. I die, and then I come back. It hurts, and this last death was definitely humiliating, but beyond that it shouldn't be a big deal."
"A b-big deal!?" Ren sputtered. "You just died in front of us for the second time! It was horrifying!"
Vyliria glanced at him, still very clearly confused, and then looked down at Penny again, who only tightened her grip, causing Vyliria's now-restored aura to flare at the sheer force of it, still sobbing. She blinked a few times, and then her expression went slack and her eyes widened. "Oh… oh shit… This… this isn't normal for you, and even though you all know I come back now, seeing me die was still traumatic, wasn't it?" she said in a small voice.
"Yes!" Pyrrha shouted. "I, I'm so sorry! I-"
"Pyrrha, if you blame yourself for this, I will backhand your face." Pyrrha's mouth snapped shut. "It's just down to bullshit luck, and nothing else. This isn't any of your faults, and while I can somewhat understand that you're all upset because I died, I am not letting any of you think it was your fault."
"But it is my fault!" Nora blurted out. "I'm the one who caused the tower to fall!"
"Do you control gravity, Nora?" she asked, still absentmindedly leaving her hand on Penny's shoulder as the gynoid began to calm from seeing her die for the second time.
"N-no."
"Then it's not your fault," Vyliria said, as if that settled the matter entirely. "Everything's okay."
"It's not!" Nora shouted back at her.
"It is," Vyliria deadpanned, still not quite grasping just how much her most recent death had rattled them all.
"It isn't!"
The unkindled raised her free arm, and pinched her nose between her thumb and forefinger, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Alright Nora, since I'm not in the mood to argue this, do you know what you can do for me to forgive you?"
"W-what?"
"Since you're insisting this is your fault when it isn't, two things." Even Penny looked up at her, somewhat upset. "Unless it has a giant hammer as an option, I want the transposition from the soul." Everyone else calmed down. That was definitely reasonable in Nora's opinion. She died, so forking over the rights to the transposition despite dealing the killing blow was definitely something she would do if that made things right.
"And the second?"
Vyliria looked her right in the eyes, before she started to grin. "Admit that you want to get in Ren's pants already, because I'm getting to the point where you two not just admitting you like each other is pissing me off as much as Jaune being denser than titanite while Pyrrha couldn't admit she had a crush to save her life."
Nora sputtered, face flushing red. "I- I, uh…"
"Vyliria, is now really the best time?" Penny asked her.
"No, but when has that stopped me?"
A few more seconds ticked by in silence, before the partner Nora was doing her best not to look at finally spoke. "Nora? Is that really how you feel?"
With a blush still plastered on her face, she hesitantly met his eyes. She swallowed. "Y-yeah."
Ren took a breath, and smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder, a slight tensing in his shoulders telling Nora just how nervous he was. "Okay."
"O-okay? What does that-" and then he leaned forwards, and put his lips to hers. She blinked owlishly, thoughts grinding to a halt as Renny continued the kiss, any thoughts she'd put into this scenario imagining her as the one to surprise him by initiating the kiss, and her surprise at the reverse of that occurring catching her completely off guard. And then she wrapped her arms around him and returned his affection with gusto. The seconds ticked by, and eventually her lungs started to burn, so she pulled back and took in oxygen, looking him in the eyes.
"It means that I feel the same way, and I'm willing to try this if you are," he whispered.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The party looked up at the sudden noise, noticing half a dozen rather wacky looking Mistralian airships, looking like strange sailboats with an underslung rear propeller and literal flapping wings on their sides descending from the skies towards them, making that loud chirping/beeping noise every other second.
"You know," Vyliria shouted to be heard over the sound of the aircraft, even as she finally got Penny to let go and walked over to collect the soul from the Nuckle-Pus, along with the Moonlight Greatsword, "It would have been really nice if those had shown up twenty minutes ago instead of just now!"
A Mistralian Municipal Policeman stepped out of the loading bay of one of the aircraft the second it came to a stop a few inches above the ground. "We saw the smoke from miles away. No one else has been out here for years. What the hell are you kids doing out here?"
"Murdering the Grimm that murdered this village," Vyliria nonchalantly shot back. "Also, most of the inhabitants of the village of Shion are about a half-hour's walk back that way," she added, pointing in the direction VAAPPR had come from, "since we've been escorting them to Mistral after their homes got sacked by bandits from the Branwen tribe, so you might wanna call in some more ships, and also tell Mistral to prep for a few hundred refugees. And yes, we left a huntsman with them, so they aren't defenseless right now."
The man looked over to her, seeing her pale skin, and his eyes widened under his aviation goggles. "Wait, you're-"
"Vyliria Avalon, the undead woman." she cut the man off, and just from the tone of her voice, Nora could tell that Vyliria was just done with anymore bullshit for the day. "Sorry if I'm sounding rude, but I just died again, and I'm not particularly in the mood to deal with anything besides the matter at hand at the moment."
"Uh, right." He thumbed an earpiece, and spoke to someone over it. "Jasmine, get in touch with headquarters. We're gonna need a couple more ships, we got-" he looked over to the Irithyllian. "About 160." "-around 160 refugees we need to bring back to Mistral." A few seconds passed. "Yes, I'm serious!" A reply went unheard by Nora, and then she watched the man look over the rest of the group. "Holy crap, Pyrrha Nikos? I didn't expect you to be heading back home any time soon."
"I, I'm here with my team." Nora's fellow redhead replied, uncomfortable with her fame being brought up already. A well-timed thunk suddenly distracted everyone, and Nora glanced over to see that Vyliria had intentionally put her transposing kiln on the ground harder than she had needed to, unceremoniously stuffing the soul she'd grabbed in, looking at the swirling void inside the stitched crystal lizard hides for a few seconds.
"Okay, what do we have to work with?" she muttered aloud, and even the MMP was silent as he stared in confusion. "The imp's hands as a paired weapon, and I can throw them out like it did… and pairs best with high luck of all things? Yeah, definitely passing on that. And the other choice is… oh? Oh, that's interesting. A pyromancy that combines both their screams? Yes, please!" She shoved a hand in, and Nora watched her pull out a scroll before the kiln went dormant once more, Vyliria absentmindedly storing it away even as her eyes devoured the text on the parchment. "Right. I dub this spell banshee!" She stood back up, and stretched. "I'm going to head back to Azul and let him know help is on the way. Penny, you wanna come with?"
"Sure!" the gynoid replied.
"In that case, let's leave team Double-Date-Night to hold down the fort while we're gone."
"What!?" four voices shouted in tandem, though with varying levels of incredulity, but much to Nora's chagrin, the Irythillian ignored them as she began to walk away.
()
A/N: And that's a wrap for Ch 20! Though this is long enough that I'm going to need to finish up Volume 4-equivalent content in the next chapter, instead. Well, as they say, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.
So first off, the Vyliria section all the way up to the Pus screaming after Vyl cleaned its curse-bile off of Penny's legs was originally written while I was literally running a fever (not covid). It wasn't exactly a pleasant writing experience, but I wanted to challenge myself, and I was curious to see if my fevered mind could come up with anything cool that my normal brain wouldn't. Suffice to say, after cleaning up the extensive grammatical errors my delirious self made, I think the experiment was actually a resounding success. If I have the mental capacity to do so, I'll definitely try to write the next time I get sick.
To start off on the chapter's content itself, while I'm enjoying going increasingly off-script from canon, sometimes you just gotta follow the story, even if you twist the plot around. In this case, everyone is slightly more attentive, and a few changed sentences means some plot details are revealed to the characters a bit earlier than normal, and VAAPPR fully knows what they're about to get into… or well, at least they thought they did.
I had the Nuckle-Pus fight planned for months before I wrote it, and details on how it would get killed were written out at roughly the same time, though the fight itself was written out in three sittings over the course of about a week. As for the fight itself, even back in FAtD, I realized that with the power creep I was planning, the normal Nuckelavee was just gonna be too easy for the party to beat. So I thought to myself for quite a while, "What horrible boost could I give to this thing to make it more of a challenge, as well as keep up a horror-factor among the party (besides Vyl, because this is Tuesday for her)?" Then, while browsing some memes on the internet, I came across a template for "What if X is combined with Y?" where you'd put in two different pictures where the letters were. And instantly, my brain went, "What if I combined the Nuckelavee with a Pus of Man?" And so, Nuckle-Pus was born. Technically, I originally intended to name it Pus of Nuckelavee, and that's what it would say on the boss HP bar, but hearing a few people I told about it calling it the Nuckle-Pus made me decide the name was entertaining enough to use myself, and Nora reflected that.
I really hope I made a good enough spectacle for you all. And let me tell you, having Vyl hit Nora in the forehead with a lightning urn for the strength boost so she could lift Ledo's had me laughing out loud for a good ten minutes. Haven't had that good a laugh at my own writing since I had Jaune doink Cinder in the head with Ozpin's paperweight.
You know, I was writing this chapter, and then I remembered a joke about the Garcello mod for Friday Night Funkin. That joke was about the brainstorming part of the mod's creation, wherein the thought process of the creators was: "Alright, what if in the middle of the mod, Garcello just fucking dies?"
Then an idea popped into my head: "What if, in the middle of celebrating killing the Pus of Nuckelavee, Vyliria just fucking dies?"
Now, if you've played any souls-genre game by From Software, you know that a lot of times, your deaths won't be some glorious sacrifice, or a surprise assasination or something like that. No, plenty of your deaths are going to be to gravity, random mooks in the level, gravity, or just the dumbest shit you can think of… and gravity. And I wanted to point that out: Not every character's death has to be dramatic, drawn out, or tragic. Sometimes, (and realistically speaking, most of the time), you just die to something random you couldn't see coming. A lot of soldiers IRL, and historically, were shot by someone they never even saw. Blown up in an instant by an IED they didn't even know about. Shelled by artillery by someone who only knew people were in the general area they were barraging. The parachute was riddled with too many bullet holes. The boat hit the beaches of Normandy, and fourteen men were cut down by an MG42 less than three seconds after the plank lowered for them to disembark. A sudden, unceremonious, violent death is the norm, and isn't portrayed in fiction enough. Like Kat in Halo Reach. Just sniped by an Elite mid-sentence. I can't remember his name, but a Spartan II died on a mission against the Covenant simply because his EVA gear was damaged and he couldn't get off the Covenant ship they were blowing up. Heroic deaths and sacrifices that would earn a Medal of Honor are the exception, not the norm. That's why such feets that go above and beyond are awarded.
And so Vyliria randomly suffered her most embarrassing death to date.
Dying is par-for the course for the Irithyllian. Simply put, now that her friends are aware she's undead, it simply didn't occur to her that witnessing her die again would actually be a traumatic experience to them. After all, she'll be back pretty quick. It sucks, but for her, it's nothing to get worked up about. So it takes her a bit to realize that her friends are actually hurting from the experience. And then in her typical fashion, she distracts everyone from their issues by changing the subject completely and throwing everyone for a loop. In this case, getting Renora to sail this early did a pretty good job at making everyone forget that she just got brained by stray masonry. Typical Vyliria, am I right?
There's nothing quite like murdering people when it comes to driving character development and getting ships to sail, especially when that murder doesn't actually stick. Maybe next time I'll have Vyliria get defenestrated…
And another quick aside, reflecting on something that nobody appeared to notice in Book 1 when Vyliria got Arkos to sail. Vyliria might not view her own life with particularly high value (she comes back, so if she can spend her life for an important goal, she's willing to pay that price), but she's aware that her friends only have one life to live. And she knows that they could be taken away in an instant. She'll never show it, but when it's obvious that her friends have a romantic attraction to one another, she wants them to get together, because she's afraid one of them might die before they could actually tell the other how they feel. Simply put, she wants them to be happy together, just in case one of them dies, so that the other won't have to live the rest of their life wondering "What if?" It's not that she's annoyed they can't admit they like one another, or she wants to play matchmaker - she's scared for them, and wants to ensure that they won't have regrets if one of them dies, because she's more than familiar with that kind of hurt.
And lastly, a brand new, original spell: Banshee! A pyromancy that channels the hate of the Abyss, mixed with a bit of that of the Grimm, into a screech which can cause physical harm to nearby foes (if we have pyromancies that involve spitting clouds of poison or gear-melting acid, a screech is definitely in the realm of possibility). If it was available in-game, I would also have the demoralizing wail cause a small debuff to AR of enemies in the vicinity. I'm gonna enjoy trying to mix that into fights as we go forwards.
Edit post the initial writing of this chapter: Just in case the previous paragraph didn't make it clear, think of Banshee as somewhat similar to Howl of Shabriri from Elden Ring, just one demonic shriek instead of literal insane howling, and without building up eldritch insanity from a Chaos God from outside this reality that seeks nothing short of the undoing of creation itself.
