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CHP 78: Intermission - I
🕑 Added 2025-02-02 15:03:38 +0000 UTC(A/N: Been wanting to do thiss since I started this fic. This might be the firsst andt the last depending on whether or not you guys liked it so be sure to share your thoughts.)
- A Tarnished of No Renown & His Maiden -
Melina sat quietly by her Tarnished's side, watching as he ran a whet blade down the sleek edge of an unassuming broadsword, again and again in a singular, repetitive but finely practised motion.
Unwilling to disturb him, she once more cast a glance at their surroundings... As she had been doing for the better part of an hour now. They sat in a quaint hallway, its bricks worn by time and certain not-so-natural influences.
One would never assume that they were underneath Kindly Miquella's Haligtree, a safe haven for the shunned made by the most compassionate of Queen Marika's Demigod children. Their surroundings were far too... unremarkable.
Well, up until she deigned to look to her side into what had once been a library or a study of some sorts. Now, a scarlet blossom dominated the room, its petals unwound in some places, wound in others. And where there was the scarlet, there were the butterflies.
It wasn't odd she realised, considering that her happily wandering Tarnished had just made his way through a swamp of the disgusting gunk, swearing vengeance and cursing each time the rot chipped away at his flesh or some piece of equipment.
He'd stumbled into this room red-faced and hooting and she almost felt bad for the Kindred of Rot that tried to stop them from entering.
Well, he deserved it, she huffed to herself.
After Karl disappeared, her Tarnished had taken to exploring every bit of the Lands Between, from the swamps of sunken Liurnia to the Altus Plateau and even the Deeproot Depths so far below the land even Queen Marika wanted to forget they existed.
And, formless and burning as she was, she had no choice but to follow him on his 'journey'... Admittedly, not all of it was bad.
Melina clenched the edges of her dress.
Sometimes, sometimes she even entertained the thought that he knew she intended to use herself as kindling to burn the Erdtree so that the path would be clear for him. That that was why he was going about his journey in such a roundabout way... So that he could spend more time with her.
Huffing, Melina pushed away those thoughts.
Burning the Erdtree was the purpose she was given. Her only reason to live. It wouldn't do to have second thoughts.
Be...Besides it wasn't like that could really be the case. In the first place, her Tarnished wasn't even aware of her intentions.
That would require the sort of critical thinking someone whose only method of solving any and all problems with a big pointy stick just wasn't capable of.
Sighing to herself, she raised her head to find a pair of dark eyes focused on her.
"Wh..." She coughed into her palm, "What is it, tarnished?"
"Nothing. Just thought it was odd."
Melina cocked her head a bit, curious.
"You looked mad, then you started getting red. Neither of us even said a word."
Melina lowered her head, covering her ears. Her Tarnished let out a chuckle and jumped to his feet, sliding his sword back into its sheath before he bent over and touched his toes.
"Come on. If Karl was right, Malenia's waiting for us down there. I want to see what kind of person did that to Radahn. She doesn't seem like much from what he said."
Melina frowned ever so slightly. The casual ease with which her Tarnished could talk of Karl made her... uneasy.
Great Heretic. Wandering Cataclysm. Hunter. Calamity. His 'friend' had as many epithets as there were demigods and not a single among them spelled anything good for any who crossed his path.
True, he had seemed rather calm and easy when he was with them, but it wouldn't wipe away his history. And it would not make her forget that each of the Demigods had made provisions such that he would not interfere in their great war, the Shattering.
Really, her Tarnished needed to be a bit more picky about the people he befriended.
"I suppose that simply makes you more admirable."
"What now?" He glanced over.
"Nothing," Melina rose to her feet, and her form was swept away by a wind.
Formless, she followed her Tarnished down the stairs beyond and through the ominous walkway that led to the very base of the Haligtree.
He was confident, but she had seen him lose his life to dogs and rats far too many times for comfort.
Who did he think Malenia was?
Karl could talk light of her because he had been there when the demigod was just a little girl. Her Tarnished had no such right. No other demigod measured up to her other than Radahn and her Tarnished had never fought him.
It was Karl who put him out of his misery when he became a mad beast before they ever met.
Still, she followed.
She watched her Tarnished step onto a small field cradled by massive roots. There, beyond a pool of flowing water circled by white flowers sat Malenia, resting against the base of the Haligtree.
Where her Tarnished walked straight forth to meet his foe, Melina looked around for way of escape. She found... nothing. Light shone down through a gap in the roots of the Haligtree up above but all else was a canopy of malformed roots, spiny branches and golden leaves.
So instead, she resolved herself to see the battle.
The Empyrean daughter of Marika bore her father, Radagon's crimson hair, and stood far taller than Melina's Tarnished. The rot had consumed most of her face, turning her pale skin into oozing, cracked, and dark flesh where it had touched her.
Melina wondered if it was the rot that made her dress so loose. Maybe the fabric pained her too, so it flowed to her knees and stopped short. The same golden greaves her knights wore protected one leg. The other was rotting.
A painful existence.
It seemed that Malenia too had decided it would be battle. The Demigod rose from her rest. She had no arm with which to fight, so she snapped into its place a prosthesis.
"...As I awaited, his return."
She had no eyes to see, yet donned her winged helm all the same as she turned to face Melina's Tarnished.
"Heed my words, I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella."
Her blade snapped into place, longer than the body of her foe.
To the credit of her Tarnished, he didn't even flinch as she pointed to him, only whistling in awe as he drew his own and reeled it back with both hands.
"And I have never known defeat."
"That's not what Karl had to say about it," He smiled. "No, sir."
For a moment, the provocation seemed to do nothing. Prattling off Malenia like an arrow to plate. But then, Melina noticed the slightest of trembles. Another moment passed, and the Empyrean took a step back.
"...?" Her Tarnished watched his foe confusedly.
Malenia looked around warily, as if afraid, then pointed her blade at the Tarnished again.
"He said... it did not count."
"What?"
"He... He said it did not matter," Malenia withdrew her blade, and held it to her breast as if to wade off some blow. "Where... is he? He is here?"
"Doesn't it kind of trivialise you more if he said it didn't even matter that you lost?"
"I do not wish to fight Karl," She proclaimed suddenly. "I have no intention... of harming his allies. He would not want to fight me... That is why he has not attacked... It must be so."
For once, Melina found her just as confused as her Tarnished.
What were they supposed to do now? What did the Empyrean even mean by her words?
Malenia stepped forward, but all her hostility from before was gone. She walked to the Tarnished, and put her hands on his shoulders. Then, as if she were pleading,
"...It hurts. Miquella... is gone. Please... Where is he? It hurts... The rot. He will help me. Where is Karl? My-"
"So this is what he was talking about." Melina's Tarnished said dimly.
Suddenly, the maiden recalled the pity with which their wayward companion talked of the demigods. How he seemed sad as he recounted the 'poor and cursed' child he cradled when her mother ignored her suffering.
-
Hope you enjoyed.
Leave a comment.
...I uh... I started university... Also uh... regular updates from now on?
I feel like GhostyZ rn bruh. I'm so sorry.
Comments
Bleap
nobody kicked you bro. I delete my discord account every once in a while for a few months and did not know it would just delete the server too.
Potato
Amazing chapter loved this little insight into Karl more
Potato
Noice, chap, btw could u post disc im pretty sure some wasteman kicked me
