"Lord Godfrey, what are you planning to do with Mohg?" Skyl's tone was casual, almost conversational, though to Mohg it sounded anything but friendly.
The Lord of Blood's eye twitched. "If you want to kill me, then come and do it."
Godfrey sighed and emphasized once again, "He is my son. I will make amends for the wrongs he has committed."
"I don't think someone his age can still call his parents when he screws up. Lord Godfrey, you should know that no matter what you do, you can't wash away the blood on Mohg's hands."
Godfrey looked deeply troubled. "I have no intention of defending this unfilial son of mine. I only want to spare his life. No matter what happens, I owe Mohg far too much. At least now, I finally have a chance to make up for some of it."
Mohg sneered. "Behold the Elden Lord, such a wonderful father. What happened to that strength you're so proud of? In front of someone stronger than you, you can't even muster a proper argument."
That shut Godfrey up.
Mohg turned toward Skyl and straightened his back. The movement sent a series of sharp cracks through his body like popping firecrackers. Apparently, that beating earlier really had broken several of his bones.
"Look at you, a god standing high above everyone else, free to pass judgment on the virtues and sins of mortals. Look around you. Whose hands here aren't stained with innocent blood?
"Godfrey, hero of the War Against the Giants, exterminated the Fire Giants alongside Radagon simply because the Fell God's flame threatened the Erdtree.
"Miquella beguiles ordinary people into dying for him. Malenia has taken more lives with her blade than anyone could ever count.
"Are they somehow innocent? Yet here you are, hypocritically befriending them simply because they've submitted to your strength. And the only reason you're willing to shower people with your so-called kindness is because they still have value to you. If they were just ordinary people, you wouldn't even spare them a glance, would you?"
Skyl didn't answer immediately. He looked back at Miquella, then turned toward Mohg again with a smile.
"I saw your life in the dream. Miquella showed me everything, so I actually know you pretty well. I can recognize every person who died because of your schemes. Simply killing you would be letting you off far too easily."
Mohg burst into laughter. His voice was dripping with contempt, but his eyes remained fixed on Skyl's expression.
"Listen to yourself. You recognize every person I've killed, so what? Are you going to inflict every bit of suffering they endured on me? Will that somehow cleanse me of my sins? Or perhaps, in your boundless mercy, you can bring all the dead back to life?"
"I like your attitude, Mohg." Skyl slowly walked toward him. "I've dealt with several villains on your level before, but you're definitely the best talker among them. I actually enjoy arguing with people like you. Especially when you keep acting tough right to the very end. I never get tired of watching it."
As Skyl's footsteps drew closer, Mohg's cheek began to twitch slightly, as though his skin had become a drum and every footfall was another strike of the drumstick.
"I prefer giving people choices because I know most people don't get many choices in life. A lot of evil deeds begin with difficult moral decisions. When you were struggling to survive in the sewers and killed others because it was the only way to stay alive, I can't really fault you for that. But after you received the Formless Mother's blessing, when you started killing for power and spreading chaos to expand your influence, that became something entirely different."
"The Formless Mother is cruel. I had no choice but to find sacrifices for her. You can stand above everyone else and judge us, but I was just some nobody digging through garbage for food, an Omen rejected by the entire world. There has only ever been one path in front of me, become strong. Grow stronger by any means necessary."
The flicker in Mohg's eyes betrayed him.
Villains could always find ten thousand excuses to defend themselves. They smeared everyone else with the same filth and placed themselves among the majority, all so they could camouflage their actions beneath the illusion of moral equivalence.
Skyl had no interest in refuting each of his arguments. Words couldn't make someone like Mohg suddenly repent. In the Lands Between, a world where victory decided who was right, the most common solution would simply be to cut Mohg down where he stood.
"Save the speeches, Mohg. Since you insist you never had a choice, I'm giving you two now.
"I can alter the history of the Lands Between and send you back into your own past, while stripping you of the ability to commit evil. Then, at the end of that new life, the new Mohg will serve as your judge and decide whether you deserve to live or die.
"Your other option is for me to place you inside a looping timeline. Within it, you'll live forever. You'll remain the monarch of the Mohgwyn Dynasty, and you might even achieve far greater things than you ever did here, but you will never be allowed to leave."
"What does that mean?" Mohg asked hoarsely, desperately trying to determine which option offered him the better chance of survival.
Skyl smiled gently.
"The first choice means confronting who you truly are. The second is an eternal dream."
"I choose the first... No."
Mohg noticed Skyl's increasingly delighted smile and immediately changed his mind.
"I choose the second. No! Wait..."
Cold sweat suddenly poured from Mohg's entire body.
His expression twisted with indecision before he finally asked in a strained voice, "Has anyone ever tried the first choice?"
Skyl cast a Projection Spell and showed him Kingpin's choice, along with the fate that had followed.
When Mohg saw Wilson Fisk reduced to nothing, his heart sank like a stone.
"What about the second option? Has anyone tried that one?"
"You'd be the first. But I can tell you the outcome ahead of time. You'll become the boss monster of an instance, and players connected to the Silver Network will challenge you again and again. You'll destroy them, or you'll become a stepping stone on their path to greater power. Either way, death will no longer belong to you. You can remain the ruler of your dynasty for ten thousand generations."
"That's eternal torture!"
"No, you'll still have a chance." Skyl patiently tried to persuade him. "Ever seen Groundhog Day? Put simply, it's about an ordinary guy trapped in the same repeating day who uses the loop to learn tons of skills and become good at practically everything. You'll be trapped inside a loop too, but your experience will keep accumulating. You'll become stronger and stronger. Someday, you might even break the cycle yourself. If you manage that, I'll consider you free."
Mohg knew perfectly well that Skyl was using rhetoric to lure him in, yet he still couldn't resist the temptation.
He chose the time loop and agreed to become an instance boss.
Most people probably wouldn't be willing to place their fate in the hands of another, unfamiliar version of themselves either. A time loop, meanwhile, meant virtually unlimited chances to fail, learn, and try again.
What could possibly be better?
"You've made your choice. Lord Godfrey, any objections?"
"...Mohg, you..." Godfrey sighed, looking at his son with deep disappointment. "You should have chosen the first path. It could have saved countless people, including you. Why did you have to be a coward?"
Miquella seemed to be witnessing the final end of an ambitious tyrant. He softly bid him farewell.
"Because Mohg doesn't trust anyone. Poor, eternally lonely Mohg. Oh, Mohg, I'm going to miss you."
"Hmph. We'll meet again soon enough."
Before Mohg could finish speaking, the Silver Fire in Skyl's hand surged forward and engulfed his entire body. The Silver Tree's roots emerged from the void and pierced straight through Mohg.
He screamed in agony.
"I regret it! Let me choose again! I choose..."
Mohg's body dissolved into a wisp of smoke within the flames and drifted into the Book of Mora in Skyl's hand.
The phantom of the Silver Tree appeared above the Mohgwyn Dynasty, and the majestic notes of the Grand Symphony began to resound.
Skyl severed a section of the timeline, duplicated it, and stored the copy inside the Book of Mora.
Mohg possessed a Great Rune, so even the Grand Symphony could produce only an incomplete copy of him. But now that Mohg himself had entered the instance, he would become part of Skyl's eternal collection.
At the final instant before being completely drawn into the book, Mohg saw what truly awaited him.
It was true that he would never die inside the temporal loop, and he could continue accumulating power.
But every time a player defeated him, a portion of that power would be stripped away and given to the player as a reward. Over countless cycles, he would only become weaker and weaker.
Worse still, the looping timeline was nothing more than a tiny pond. Even if Mohg were given eternity, he could never use it to ascend to godhood.
Instead, endless repeated defeats would slowly crush him beneath an accumulating flood of painful memories.
Little by little, despair would consume him until he eventually lost the will to resist.
He would never escape.
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