When Elsa hurried to the scene, all she saw were severed limbs strewn across the ground and a dragon's head cast aside. The largest mass was Godrick, who had been hacked into something resembling a "cocoon." Even she felt a wave of revulsion at the sight before her.
"Is everything outside settled? I'm just about finished here."
Gawain gripped the crown atop Godrick's head, channeled the power of the storm into his fist, and sent the demigod flying with a single punch, smashing him against a nearby tombstone.
"There's one Crucible Knight still resisting. He's currently locked in a heated battle with the other one you released, though it's only a matter of time. Edgar took his men toward the Divine Tower to deal with the golems that might pose a threat. I thought I'd hurry over to lend you a hand, but it looks like there was no need."
Gawain nodded, not particularly surprised. With the Ancient King's intentional cooperation, this had been a one-sided slaughter.
Other demigods at least had loyal followers. Even Rykard, who had devoured his own knights, still had a legion of loyal Man-Serpents. Godrick, however, was truly the most pathetic of the demigods. Even a common soldier like Gostoc dared to trample on his pride. Aside from Margit the Fell Omen guarding the gate and the Grafted Scions, he had almost no formidable combat power. He treated the grafting materials of a mere dragon as a priceless treasure.
"I expected some trouble entering the castle, and it turned out exactly as I thought. Once I finish up here, I'll help you clean up the remaining stragglers."
"Cough... damn Tarnished... you don't really think it ends this easily, do you?"
Gawain turned his head to see Godrick, who could barely stand. At some point, the demigod had reclaimed his Royal Axe, propping himself up with his remaining right hand and left leg.
Seeing this, Gawain felt a flicker of respect for the man's sheer stubbornness. Even in this state, he could still spout such defiance—though it was nothing more than empty bravado.
"Whatever. I'm done wasting words with you. It's time."
Gawain drew the Executioner's Greatsword. He had intended for the man to truly feel the agony of his own grafting, but now it was time to end it. Gripping the hilt, he stepped forward, intending to give him a swift death and claim the Great Rune.
To his surprise, the exhausted Godrick let out a manic laugh and slammed the Royal Axe into the ground with all his might. The entire area began to quake. Just as Godfrey could cause tremors with a simple stomp, Godrick poured every ounce of his strength into creating a massive shockwave.
As Gawain steadied himself, he saw Godrick conjuring the storm once more, attempting to lift his body into the air. This time, however, he didn't even have the strength to swing an attack; he was merely using the wind to make his immobile body airborne.
Just as Gawain calculated how to strike him down mid-air, he realized Godrick had no intention of attacking. The direction he was flying was the exact opposite of Gawain's position.
"Shit, he's trying to run!"
Without hesitation, Gawain conjured a Giant's Lightning Spear and hurled it. Thrown in haste, the bolt lacked its full potency. Though it blasted away more of the rotting flesh on Godrick's bloated body, the fact that he was still able to scream suggested the hit wasn't fatal.
With the momentum from the blast, Godrick tumbled across the ground, smashing through a cluster of tombstones before rolling over the edge of the cliff. The sound of a heavy object crashing against the rocks echoed from below for a long time before silence finally returned.
"What was that? Did he just... commit suicide?"
Elsa couldn't grasp Godrick's actions. She had been ready to deliver a finishing blow, only for him to jump off a cliff.
"No, he's not dead yet. We have to go down and check."
Gawain frowned. He hadn't felt the influx of Runes that follows a kill, nor was there any sign of the Great Rune. This meant Godrick still had a breath of life in him, and that fall had been a deliberate move.
A dark suspicion flickered in Gawain's mind, though he found it hard to believe the man would actually go that far.
He hesitated to jump directly. The depth was uncertain and the terrain below unknown. His mastery over the storm wasn't yet refined enough to guarantee a soft landing, and he didn't want to drop blindly onto the face of an Ulcerated Tree Spirit in such a cramped space.
"There should be a staircase in the castle leading to the depths. Let's find it."
Leaving the area with Elsa, Gawain retraced his steps, searching for the path he remembered.
Deep underground, Godrick vomited a pool of blood as he regained consciousness. He tried to push himself up but failed. His axe was gone, and his body was a ruin of severed limbs. Only his right hand could still move.
Feeling his body gradually collapsing, he knew the end was near. But he refused to accept defeat. His pride as the "Golden Lineage" would not allow him to lose to a mere Tarnished.
The memory of being trampled by the Blade of Miquella was burned into his soul, driving his obsession with power. And here, he found one last material for grafting—the physical manifestation of the Prince of Death, spreading through the roots of the Greattree.
Using his one working hand, Godrick crawled slowly toward the source of the thick, oppressive deathly aura. He reached out and gripped the Prince of Death's Pustule.
Instantly, the Deathblight within surged through his body. Black thorns of death wrapped around and pierced his flesh, but his resistance to the blight was temporarily bolstered.
The Great Rune, the symbol of the Elden Ring's center, manifested within Godrick. This shard of the Ring granted him immense vitality and the power of "inclusion"—the very reason he could graft disparate limbs to his body without them rejecting one another.
"Forgive me, Ancestor... but lend me your strength!"
The light in Godrick's eyes shifted, taking on the hollow, haunting look of the deceased. With a ragged breath and the last of his willpower, he initiated the grafting ritual, fusing his broken remains with the corpse of the Prince of Death.
The majority of the Rune of Death's power had been spent killing Godwyn the Golden, so the deathly energy spreading through the roots wasn't enough to completely annihilate a demigod's soul like it had on the Night of the Black Knives.
However, it meant the birth of something far more sacrilegious: Those Who Live in Death.
The ritual was complete. Godrick's soul was now defiled, transformed into an entity entirely alien to the current Lands Between—a being with the immortality of the Death-born and the mutability of the Grafted.
An Ulcerated Tree Spirit dropped from above, seemingly intent on stopping him, but after a brief struggle, it too was consumed and assimilated.
Rogier was panting as he climbed the long ladder. Suddenly, a violent tremor shook the structure, nearly causing him to lose his grip and fall. As the air grew thick with the stench of death, a primal fear gripped his heart. No, I can't stay here.
Realizing his position was precarious, he looked around and leapt toward a breach in a nearby building, using glintstone sorcery to blast open a path and hide inside.
Peeking out, he witnessed a scene he would never forget. A mass of festering, pustule-ridden flesh was crawling up the cliffside. He could just barely recognize the shattered crown atop the creature's head. It was Godrick.
"This is bad... very bad!"
The commotion in the depths could not be hidden from those above. Gawain's expression darkened as the tremors intensified. He knew this wasn't something the broken Godrick he had just fought should be capable of.
The two Crucible Knights fighting in the city center also stopped. Every eye in Stormveil was now fixed on the abyss beyond the cliff.
First, a massive arm, stained a dark, sickly brown by pustules, reached over the edge. Judging by its shape, it had once belonged to an Ulcerated Tree Spirit.
Then came a twisted head wearing a broken crown. Godrick had lost all semblance of reason. His eyes were bulging and swollen like those of a Basilisk—the Eyes of the Dead.
Kandan, seeing this monstrosity, punched his companion Finn in fury. "This is who you swore loyalty to?! Look at what he has done to Lord Godwyn's remains!"
"This... this is impossible... How could Godrick dare..."
As the monster hauled itself up, the survivors—whether loyalists or rebels—leveled their weapons at the thing. Crossbolt volleys and storm-arts rained down upon it, but the effects were negligible.
Those who could move fled, but many of Godrick's soldiers who had been captured and bound were ruthlessly consumed by the lord they had once served.
Foul pustules erupted from the monster's body. Anything they touched was instantly entangled in black Deathblight thorns and assimilated into the "Death-born" mass.
Gawain looked back at the despondent Crucible Knights. He knew how great a blasphemy this was in their eyes.
Moreover, he could see that the thing Godrick had become was far more dangerous than he had imagined. The potent Deathblight could damage the soul itself, and the grafting power enhanced by the Great Rune meant the creature could grow stronger by consuming any living thing.
Everyone left in the castle was nothing more than fodder. The best decision was for him to face this thing alone.
"Cursed monster, get out of my city!"
The Ancient King's voice thundered from the sky. A spectral image of a Stormhawk merged with the winds surrounding the castle, creating a localized cyclone filled with sharp debris that pinned the monster in place.
"Think of something! My power cannot hold this beast for long!"
Gawain knew there was no time for hesitation. He turned to Elsa. "Take everyone and get out of here. I'll handle this monster."
Before he could finish, a group of Banished Knights surrounded him, clearly intending to escort him to safety. Having brought the Ancient King back to Stormveil, these knights now viewed Gawain as their new sovereign.
"I have a way to deal with it! Get the civilians out of here, or I'll have to waste energy protecting you!"
Though they hesitated, the knights obeyed his command, leading the survivors away from the looming nightmare.
"Agheel! Where is that dragon? Get down here!"
At Gawain's call, Agheel fluttered her wings and descended, though even she looked terrified. The creature below was too bizarre, and she had no desire to become a part of that mass.
"Take Elsa and leave. She's the only one who can coordinate the others to stay clear of this place. I'll take it from here."
Elsa wanted to protest, but she knew she would only be a liability in a fight of this scale. Mounting Agheel's back, she spoke with a voice laced with worry. "You have to win. I'll be waiting for the good news outside."
"Yeah. Now go."
Once they were clear, Gawain unleashed the full power of his Pyromancy Flame. He slammed his hand onto the ground, and a dozen pillars of fire erupted into the sky, their scale and intensity far surpassing his display at Castle Morne.
Combined with the Ancient King's storm, the inferno trapped the monster within a narrow killing zone. However, such a massive output caused the Darksign on his chest to manifest once more. The seal of fire was straining, threatening to break.
He glanced back at the two Crucible Knights who remained. Kandan seemed to have found his resolve, but his companion was dazed, kneeling on the ground and staring blankly into the heart of the firestorm at the struggling horror.
"Tch... what a pathetic Crucible Knight. Glad you're not one of mine, or I'd be embarrassed."
Gawain sighed. He didn't need more distractions. He walked over, grabbed the knight's armor, and roared.
"What's with that face?! What's with those tears?! Do you think kneeling there will kill the monster that defiled Godwyn's corpse?"
"Get out of here! Don't get in my way!"
The roar snapped the knight out of his stupor. The way he looked at Gawain changed; he saw it now—the darkening, eclipsed sun burning vividly on the man's chest.
Exchanging a look with Kandan, the knight understood. Without another word, he stood up and retreated toward the castle gates.
With no more distractions behind him, Gawain exhaled. His lion-like pupils locked onto the monster thrashing in the flames. He would end this here, no matter the cost.
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Elden Ring: In the Name of Ash (85 chapter - Ongoing)
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