Chapter 52: Aligned (Patreon)

A pounding pain assaulted every corner of Marika’s mind, a stomach churning sense of nausea setting in.

She felt it.

That energy Onyx produced and utilized racing through their entangled essence. It twisted and turned throughout them, running a trail around the points in which they met. Walls, partitions made entirely of that energy, sprang up wherever it went, each growing more powerful as the seconds dragged on.

The water filled world around her blurred.

Her form grew numb.

And the constant ever present sense of peace that Onyx exuded grew distant, their bond not diminishing but becoming a distant thing that required focus to perceive.

It felt as though everything was slipping away.

Had that battle with ancient dragon and the subsequent sudden increase in power that occurred during it been what he’d been working towards? Did he have some way to separate them?

His energy settled, the rounding boundaries forming between them fully set in.

Then they moved.

Pain was nothing new to her. She’d experienced degrees of it that no mortal could begin to comprehend.

Yet a groan was forced out of her as the pounding against her skull intensified.

“Stop.” She ordered.

Onyx, seated on the blue grass across from her, eyes closed in focus, ignored her, focusing only on his energy. She could tell what he intended. All that energy of his, every drop of it was dedicated to a single goal. Pushing her out.

Through raw force.

“This method will not work.” She forced out the warning through the pain.

She could feel it. The accursed sensations that was more curse than gift.

Her essence loosened but didn’t break. Heedless of her own will, parts of it spilled forward like an insipid poison. The very same energy that sought to push her out by solidifying itself and forcing itself forward only served to encourage their merging, her essence quick to adapt and mold itself to the change.

Their distant bond suddenly became the sole thing grounding her.

The pain. Disgust. The unspoken fear.

All of it was shared between them, neither overpowering the other but for a rear moment, balancing out as they met in perfect harmony.

“Thine’s actions will condemn us both.” This time he heeded her.

The walls halted, weakening, before falling away completely.

The world came back into focus.

Her form regained feeling, the grass she hadn’t even realized she’d fallen to soft beneath her palms and knees.

And their bond. It was difficult to tell their emotions apart now. Perhaps it had to do with that fact that his current anger, frustration, and dissatisfaction were all constants for her, the emotions meshing together almost as soon as they sprang up. The sting of failure could summon such emotions even from one such as him it seemed.

Though this failure and the attempt that led to it at all, was due to her own reluctance.

Onyx opened his eyes as he wiped the blood running down from them, his narrowed eyes focused on her.

That attempt to separate them, short as it had been, hastened their merging, their bond all the stronger to prove it. Anything impulse or emotion he might’ve managed to hide from her, the hate he held for one slowly stealing his life from him, was laid bare.

Except there was none. Anger at their circumstances, frustration at his failure to do anything about it, and their shared fear about the end result.

She didn’t understand it.

How could he look upon her, fully aware of who she was, what she was capable of, and not feel some sense of hate for her? Disdain at least? Even Radagon, the only other witness to such truths, held a long standing bitterness for her that evolved into the furious hatred that finally turned them against each other, bringing about this age.

Marika rose from her hands, meeting Onyx’s gaze.

How did someone so foolish yet so powerful come to be?

Whatever Onyx’s goal in The Lands Between, whatever he was, they shared a desire to retain their independence and freedom. And, despite experience telling her otherwise, she inspired no malice from him.

Neither was he one who actively sought out power.

“Mine people, they were known as shamans.” Marika began.

He could be, had to be, trusted with certain things she’d rather be forgotten. If only to avoid any further mistakes.

XOXO

A small village of people used as sacrifices by the powerful majority. Not a unique occurrence. Those people possessing the inherent ability to fuse flesh and soul with other beings. Had all her people been exactly like her, the way in which they effortlessly adapted themselves to foreign entities was the peculiar part.

He wouldn’t stop trying but he wasn’t certain his mana alone could defend against a presence so willing to abandon its own identity just to persist.

Onyx rose, groaning as he raised his numb arm to his bandage wrapped chest. Most of his body had some measure of bandages wrapped around it, the especially deep wounds left by that dragon’s glaive of lightning likely beneath them. He’d know from the first slash he suffered from the thing that his body, resilient as it was, wouldn’t be able to stand up to the dense power within it.

Onyx raised his left hand, bandages wrapped around his palm.

But for all the pain that crimson lightning had inflicted upon him, it’d given birth to something else.

With a thought powerful crimson sparks danced between his fingers.

“It would seemeth thou’s recklessness hath paid dividends.” Marika said, taking form beside his bed, watching the small light show. “Few hath earned the respect of a dragon. Nearly none bestowed their blessing.”

Their blessing as she put it took the form of a crackling power. Unlike his mana which flowed through his entire body, the wild power rested within his heart, the thumping organ housing the new energy. With its every beat, the act more powerful than before, the bit of energy he used to draw forth those sparks was replenished.

Whatever that dragon had done to him changed his body, enabling it to produce and maintain the same lightning she used. It didn’t compare to the vastness nor the potency of what she wielded, but it also didn’t draw from anything beyond him nor affect his soul.

It was purely a power of the body.

He’d definitely be taking the time to explore it, but that sort of power wouldn’t solve the issue he was focused on.

“You’re sure about the Elden Ring?” He questioned, looking up to her.

“Why question mine claim? Thou does not doubt me.” Marika said her brow raising. “Whole the Elden Ring acted as a tool to employ and manage the fundamental principles that govern all beneath the Erdtree’s influence. Broken they are nothing more than objects of aimless energy that any can make use of. Gather the scattered shards and thou will wield power capable of separating us.”

Like she said, it wasn’t her he doubted, but her interpretation. As the goddess of these lands, she knew better than any other how much influence the energies here had over people but that didn’t mean she was privy to every detail concerning the tools vital to her rule.

After all, despite the might of the power she wielded upon their first meeting, like most others in these lands, it hadn’t been one entirely of her own creation.

“I’ll just have to get my hands on one to be sure.” Onyx said.

“We art in agreement then? Good.” Marika floated closer to the door, her bubbling anticipation giving rise to a sense of restlessness in him. “There is little need to waste time on recovery. Even injured, that disgrace Godrick will fall to thou’s strength in short order with the little one at thine’s side. From there I will direct thee to the other shards.”

Someone’s getting ahead of themselves. Onyx thought with a chuckle. He still needed to see one of these shards before he was sold on the plan.

Even then, containers of power could be used in many different ways.

As he removed the furs covering him and shifted so his legs were hanging over the bed, numbing pain ignored, the cabin door opened.

Melina stepped in.

And dropped to a kneel as the door closed behind her.

“Queen Marika.” She stated, head bowed low. Their surprise mingled together, both of them caught off guard by the greeting. For a moment he thought Melina could see Marikia but, words aside, she didn’t acknowledge the presence floating near her in any way.

“What are you doing?” Onyx asked.

Melina’s head rose just enough to reveal her face, gaze uncertain. “Your words just now, about being directed toward the Elden Ring’s shards. That was Queen Marika speaking through you, was it not?”

Onyx exchanged a glance with Marika.

Their contained conversations bleeding out without either of them noticing was just another sign of things to come.

“Are we setting out?” Melina questioned. Her voice might’ve been as plain as ever, but she was uncharacteristically earnest about it. Then again, to her that counted as the first bit of communication from Marika, indirect or not.

“Yeah.” Onyx said, standing up and stretching out despite the pain the motions brought.

It was about time he laid eyes on this demigod so many knights loyally fought for, yet Marika herself held such disdain for.

XOXO

Her somewhat humanoid form taken, Lansseax maintained a low hover just above the shifting waters a small ways out from island Onyx and his company rested on. She took slow deep breaths, calming the storm of energy striking out within her, fighting a battle to control her own power for the first time in recent memory.

Something about that battle had strengthened her. It was only temporary, the increase in power already fading, but it was quite unlike anything she had experience with.

She had not intended for their meeting to go the way it did.

Humans, in fact most other races, were not like her kind. Anger, desperation, a want, or need. For other races battle always had a reason and was fueled by something. There had to be a purpose behind it.

For them, battle itself was just a part of life. Not something to hate another over and far from something that required reasoning. More often than not, it resulted in many of her kin enjoying combat, the risk that could be associated with it rarely even an afterthought. Some enjoyed crushing those weaker than them. Others found the most enjoyment against rare insurmountable odds where they could be found. A few preferred an even field, fights generally kept among their own kind.

She and Fortissax had always been among the few.

Long ago she’d been surprised that he of all people would pass up a war with the Golden Order but upon meeting Godwyn the Golden for herself, she’d understood.

Godwyn had been the only human they ever encountered who could simply enjoy a battle despite the circumstances surrounding how it came to be. It was that unique trait which saw an unbreakable bond forged during a battle that had brought both low. That friendship brought a swift end to a war, leaving many unsatisfied until they met Godwyn themselves.

She’d thought another like him could not exist.

There were formidable warriors even in these times. She traveled alongside one in what now felt like another life. But none were anything like Godwyn.

Until Onyx.

Lansseax’s tongue ran over her teeth, the taste of bits of his blood still lingering on them.

Fighting him had been like going against one of her own kind. A pleasure she’d nearly forgotten. Furthermore, the power she parted with had settled within him perfectly, as though it always belonged to him. As if his physical form was a ruse and he truly was one of her kind.

Fortissax had gifted similar power Godwyn in the same fashion but even he, a demigod, hadn’t taken to it so well, still a human despite his many similarities to them.

What would Onyx do with that power? Would it do away with the merciful restraint he showed to both those deserving and underserving of it?

With a flap of her wings, she shot ahead of the dangerous one eyed woman and spectral steed he was setting out with.

She would watch a little longer before coming to a decision concerning him.

XOXO

(A/N: The direct journey for the shards finally begins. For my fellow Lansseax fans, don't worry, I don't plan on degrading her to some one note battle hungry fiend or anything like that. Their first meeting and some other things are all just to show one of the defining traits of dragons in this story.

Hope you enjoyed. Still kind of surprised I'm posting together. I had no idea this story was capable of getting so many powerstones on webnovel in one day.)