After finishing off Jori, Gawain didn't leave immediately. Instead, he hunted down every single spectral "stray" hiding in the vicinity. He smashed their gravestones and even gave them a few extra stomps for good measure. You think you can offend an Ashen One and just walk away?
These spirits were quite interesting. Even though they had lost most of their sanity, they clearly recognized danger when their commander was gone. Yet, instead of running away, they chose to squat in place and shiver, as if whatever was deeper in the Abyssal Woods was far more terrifying than Gawain.
Once he was sure no one had escaped, Gawain returned to the pile of ash that used to be the Inquisitor. He bent down and picked up the unscathed golden staff.
Barbed Staff-Spear. That was its name. He gave it a few experimental swings to test the weight. In the Hornsent's hands, it was clearly a staff, but Gawain felt it would work quite well as a thrusting spear. In game terms, it was probably like Sir Gideon Ofnir's Scepter—in anyone else's hands, the spells and weapon arts were top-tier, but in his own, it would likely be a toy.
However, reality didn't have as many hard restrictions. For instance, he could manifest soul sorceries directly from his hands in an emergency; catalysts were simply tools to increase potency and reduce consumption.
He raised the Barbed Staff-Spear with one hand, channeling mana to test the weapon art. Over his long career of torture, Jori had left a deep imprint on the weapon; even after death, his essence remained in this instrument of pain as a skill.
In the next moment, the dense barbs on the staff-spear lit up in succession. A torrent of golden arcs surged out one after another. This fierce frequency of attack was essentially a "holy machine gun."
Combined with Gawain's already absurdly high Faith stat, this thing was excellent for clearing crowds. it filled a gap in his arsenal—his Storm Stomp lacked range, and using a Sunlight Spear on common foot soldiers was like using a railgun to swat a mosquito.
Satisfied with the weapon art's power, he nodded and stowed the weapon. It was time to officially enter the Abyssal Woods.
He went back to retrieve Melina and the cowardly Ashmi. Although the mimic was still shaking, it seemed to have gained a bit of confidence after watching the fight. While a spirit might fear being melted by the Frenzied Flame, spirits also had the advantage of being immune to status ailments.
Gawain looked at the deathly, eerie environment ahead and stepped into the Abyssal Woods without hesitation.
Scanning the charred landscape dotted with murky yellow light, he saw the jagged, chaotic scars left by the Frenzied Flame everywhere in the mist-shrouded valley. In this environment, the "Frenzied" creatures were perfectly camouflaged, making them difficult to detect immediately. To fulfill Messmer's request perfectly, Gawain chose to search and clear them one by one along the path.
The valley was vast, the journey long, and the environment saturated with madness. It was the kind of trek that wore a man down. The thick aura of Frenzied Flame caused the "Madness" meter to rise steadily. Gawain, of course, felt nothing, and Ashmi was completely immune to status effects.
However, Melina's breathing grew heavier as they walked. Though she still had strength, she was showing signs of physical exhaustion.
"Can you still walk? Why don't you revert to your spirit form and follow behind me?"
She paused to catch her breath, scanning the surroundings before shaking her head.
"Do not worry. I can keep up. During my travels in the Lands Between, I saw the spread of the Frenzied Flame in the eyes of many desperate people. But a scale like this... it truly exceeds my imagination. However, with you here, I will no longer choose to flee from such a scene."
Gawain shook his head slightly. This is the Melina who hunts the Lord of Frenzied Flame in that specific ending, after all. Her attitude toward the flame was strictly "it's either me or the fire."
He blew into his Spectral Steed Whistle to summon Torrent, intending to let Melina ride while he and Ashmi scouted ahead.
But something strange happened. Torrent didn't appear immediately as he usually did. The whistle on Gawain's finger vibrated twice, then fell silent.
Melina leaned in toward the whistle, as if listening to Torrent's memories, then shook her head gently.
"Torrent is terrified of the Lord of Frenzied Flame's aura. It seems the environment here has scared him quite badly."
"What? Even Torrent is afraid?"
Gawain was genuinely stunned. Torrent was usually fearless, charging into the most dangerous battles without a second thought. He had crossed the Scarlet Rot swamps and the blinding blizzards of the Consecrated Snowfield. Why was he acting like a coward today?
Melina looked at the shocked Gawain and explained, "Do not blame him. The Frenzied Flame is a terrifying thing. As a spirit, Torrent would be melted by it. If that happens, he will cease to exist—erased from the Lands Between forever."
"Exactly, exactly! See, even Torrent is scared! So it's not just my fault! Ahem!" Ashmi added.
Gawain let out a sigh and gave Ashmi's head a "merciless iron grip" squeeze, abandoning the plan to use the whistle.
"Alright. Don't push yourself. The Frenzied Flame isn't something that can be easily extinguished anyway."
As they resumed their journey, Gawain looked at the whistle on his finger. He suddenly remembered the Frenzied Flame ending, where Melina picks up the shattered remains of the whistle from the ash.
At that time, Torrent must have been incinerated by the maddened Lord. This was why, no matter how many playthroughs he completed, he never chose the Frenzied Flame ending. There were too many people he would be betraying.
Before long, Gawain saw several grey marks on the ground, glowing faintly. They looked like messages left by someone. After checking for traps, he hurried forward to inspect them. There were three warnings left by a predecessor, written in a startling, visceral color.
"Don't let that thing find you..."
"Once it finds you, there is no escape!"
"Why... why is it impossible to touch that thing!?"
The three messages, left in succession, conveyed the sheer terror of the writer through their distorted script. Further away, it seemed the writer had been chased for a distance before leaving a final warning in despair.
"Hide in the grass!!!"
The writing was frantic and twisted; it was hard to imagine what the author had encountered. The messages looked ancient; it seemed no one had managed this area for a long time after the outbreak, though there had been external visitors.
Messmer had mentioned that Queen Marika once preached here. Perhaps this writer was a pilgrim who had encountered something horrific. After the influence of the flame spread from the valley, the presence of the Lord was discovered by the Hornsent, and the "formidable old man" he had just killed had led the effort to contain it.
Returning his focus to the messages, Gawain extracted the key intel. The enemy cannot be touched. Was the power gap too large, or did the monster have a special property? No escape once spotted likely referred to some specialized pursuit ability.
Since he didn't have any more useful information, Gawain decided to stay alert and continue. He began to radiate a brilliant light, and with the continuous buff of his miracles, the dim surroundings became bright.
"You're doing this...?"
"I'll walk in the front. You two keep your distance. If anything happens, whatever that thing is, it'll come for me first."
Melina nodded first. She had seen too many miracles from him regarding the Frenzied Flame, so she supported him regardless of what he did. Ashmi, on the other hand, scanned the area, its keen senses detecting something rapidly approaching.
"Is this really a good idea? I'm telling you now—I'm staying in the back to protect Lady Melina. Those things are almost here."
"That's perfect. To me, they are the prey."
Instead of hiding in the grass as the message suggested, Gawain walked down the road in a literally "blatantly obvious" manner. Melina and Ashmi hung back to give him room to work.
Before long, he saw the "thing" mentioned in the messages.
Its head was no longer human. In its place were countless glowing yellow Frenzied Flame eyes, bulging like tumors, crowded together in a sickening mass. Each pupil burned with an eerie, ghostly light. Beneath that malformed head was a body so emaciated it looked like dry wood, its skeletal neck and shoulders hunched under the weight of the head, appearing grotesque and disproportionate.
Even Gawain, who had seen plenty of "abstract" horrors, clicked his tongue inwardly. This thing is a bit too much.
No wonder the Hornsent spirits and the pilgrims were terrified. Compared to the usual horrors of the Lands Between, this looked like a refugee from the Bloodborne set. In a horror movie, this would be the final boss's true form.
Unfortunately for the monster, while a normal person might be scared, a man holding a weapon that weighs over six tons and can be swung like a baton is a different story.
The moment Gawain spotted the creature, the countless eyes atop its head turned toward him simultaneously. For a fraction of a second, he could actually read an emotion resembling "shock" in its pupils.
In the next heartbeat, the frenzied creature vanished from its spot.
Without hesitation, Gawain instinctively lunged to the side, his movements as precise as a pre-calculated read. As the monster's staff whistled past his cloak and missed, Gawain's fist was already swinging back with the sound of tearing wind, aimed squarely at the creature's face. Several pillars of angelic light shot toward the enemy at the same time.
However, as the light exploded, Gawain's brow furrowed. His fist felt no solid impact; it passed straight through the creature's body as if hitting air.
The problem was that the staff attack just now definitely had mass. That meant the creature had entered a special intangible state the moment he counterattacked.
Wow, look at this I-frame spammer. This guy probably thinks he's an absolute pro.
In that brief moment of shock, the head with its cluster of eyes brushed past Gawain's face. He immediately heard the frantic, maddened whispers in his ears, and faint hallucinations flickered before his eyes.
It was the sign of Madness buildup. Gawain didn't panic; he simply looked at his enemy with cold calm. He had personally snatched people away from Outer Gods; he wasn't about to be afraid of a mere status ailment.
So what if you can phase? You really think hiding makes you untouchable?
Adjusting his stance, Gawain drew the Ringed Knight Straight Sword. He activated the weapon art, igniting the blade in a surge of fire that instantly canceled his recovery animation. Without using any other power, he simply delivered a plain, unadorned forward slash.
Before the Ember—a flame powerful enough to distort reality itself—the space where the Ringed Straight Sword cut was "locked." The frenzied creature had nowhere left to hide. Even while maintaining its intangibility, its massive eyeball-head was sliced cleanly in two.
The monster let out a scream of indeterminate meaning and collapsed. The giant eye split open, and after a few convulsions, several molten eyeballs scattered across the ground and began to slowly dissolve, their latent Frenzied Flame energy leaking into the air.
Among them, one eye that had swollen from the inside out was particularly conspicuous. If the other smaller eyes were decorations, this massive, molten eye was the primary component of the creature's head.
Gawain walked toward the largest eye, his boots crushing the smaller eyeballs scattered in his path. They burst with a viscous fluid, and the Frenzied Flame within was instantly absorbed.
Fearless of the gaze, he leaned in to inspect it. Though the eye still held the influence of the flame, with the host dead, the effect was negligible.
He soon found a vital piece of information: there was a charred fingerprint on the swollen eye. It was a three-fingered print—identical to those associated with the Three Fingers in the game.
Gawain's expression turned grim as he crushed the giant eye underfoot. The creatures here have had direct contact with the Three Fingers? No wonder they possessed abilities so terrifying to ordinary beings.
If there were prints of the Three Fingers here, was the Lord of Frenzied Flame in this valley ignited by the same Three Fingers imprisoned beneath the Capital?
Gawain squinted into the distance. He could sense that more than one of these monsters was roaming the area. What exactly was the relationship between these things and the Lord of Frenzied Flame?
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Elden Ring: In the Name of Ash
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