ER A Foreign Soul Chapter 59: Split (Patreon)

She sat on a tall stone wall.

Down below, wearing opposing colors and symbols, different groups clashed with one another. Some used swords and bows. Others used guns and other types of advanced technology. Some groups relied solely on magic, the act coming in many different shapes with varying effects.

Marika blinked, some of the strange terms and things she saw before her bringing her out of her daze.

Another of his memories.

Rather than resisting or trying to examine every detail, she let herself be taken along with it.

It was just another battle. No different than countless others. There was some entertainment to be found in it, many down there already killed by her hand. The strongest among all the groups. Those that were left wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight unless they dogpiled him and even then, she didn’t see anyone down there actually capable enough to be bothered with.

Like always.

A presence, its weight like hands on her shoulders, solidified. It urged her on, whispering its orders. Promising power, entertainment, and anything else she could possibly want.

Like always.

She stood, examining the shortswords in her hands. Blood, still fresh, dripping off their blades. Normally she’d suck up these brief moments of silent thoughts that were becoming more and more common and get back to the fighting.

Like always.

She turned, faint blue flames gathering along the edge of one of the blades, a swipe of it dispersing the invisible weight that sat on her shoulders. It transformed, turning into the oppressive pressure she remembered it being.

But it wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as back then.

She dropped herself off the wall and back down into the battle below.

These things that had them fighting, the so called gods behind all these battles, were supposed to be untouchable beings that transcended their understanding. Trying to go against them or their orders was impossible. A suicide attempt at best. She’d seen plenty die on the spot for refusing to fight.

And yet the very same one that governed her for so long responded no differently than any of the desperate fighters she’d cut down.

Could it be killed?

XOXO

Curiosity and budding dissatisfaction melted away alongside the scenery of that sudden memory, the once sacred courtyard of Stormveil, marked by the graves of many important to its history and dirtied by that pathetic excuse of a demigod and his desperate obsession with something as despicable as Grafting, reforming around her.

Onyx stood at the center of it, the Great Rune that he had taken onto himself reformed and floating over his hands.

To this day it still astounded her that that pathetic excuse of a demigod had been allowed to carry such a thing for so long. Ranni she understood; that child had given up plenty in her own pursuit of freedom, somewhat aware of the dangers that came with interacting too closely with things related to the Golden Order. The rest should’ve been able to lay claim to it long before the Rune ended up where it did.

Even the tarnished should’ve got their hands on it.

Onyx now had it.

“What does thou intend to do with the Rune?” Marika questioned positioning herself beside it.

He looked at her. Then back to it. “This thing would make a good vessel, don’t you think?”

Despite lacking a body, Marika felt herself go rigid.

He was not wrong.

It was no secret, spoken of in metaphor and alluded to in plenty of things the churches made in her honor spewed, but few took it as literally as they should. She and the Elden Ring, in countless ways, were one and the same. Her once flesh and blood body had assimilated with it fully to the point that the sensations she could gleam from his senses at times were still foreign to her.

For Radagon, a body that was one with the Elden Ring elevated his already unmatched ability for combat further.

For her, it made things possible that others called miracles or divine intervention along with an inborn resistance for foreign influences.

A boon. For a time that was what she believed.

“No.” Marika said firmly, trying to keep herself in check. “I will not be reduced to such a thing again.” He looked up to her again.

Strong as their bond had grown, the mingling of their respective emotions and sometimes intention was not new ground. She herself had, on more than one occasion, attempted to use her rage to get him to act according to her desires or at least make it easier to suggest certain things, but time and time again he proved himself unwaveringly stubborn.

Onyx, for his part, very rarely let anything cross over to her intentionally.

Understanding. Perhaps even a sense of shared pain that was his own rather than a product of what she felt.

Sympathy was easily earned from Onyx. Anyone from roaming animals, enthralled spirits, to the very people he was surrounding himself with. He pitied them, his actions showed as much, but they mistook too much of it for full on empathy.

The timid demihuman’s lost sense of belonging. The blind girl’s condition. The witch’s imprisonment and isolation. The Little One’s fragmented memory and lack of sensation.

Those got some measure of true empathy out of him.

It was foolish of him to direct any of that at her.

“Don’t worry, that’s not part of the plan.” He said, gaze dropping from her. That power, which had so far been restrained to only him, finally made another appearance, blue flames flickering to life along his fingers. The embers raced up the Great Rune’s golden lining, taking over its faint glow. “Whatever you feel don’t fight it, Marika. You’ll only make things harder than they need to be.”

Pressure slammed against her, pain overtaking all else.

Marika fought past it, now seeing through his eyes and watching as his energy raced and spun around the circles of the Shard, forming its own flaming mark. He was doing something to it, golden light falling away from the symbol.

She’d known he wouldn’t simply take the Elden Ring. Anything beyond that was a mystery.

He could levy its power and her nature to separate them, using it as a way to confine and seal her away.

With much of her own power gone, it could, at risk to his self, provide him a way to kill her.

Or maybe something far worse than she could imagine.

But whatever he was doing called for absolute focus, none of his attention on her or The Little One who stood beside him.

Ordering her to kill them was more than possible with their connection as it was now.

There would be some hesitation. Doubt too. She had not been blind to the affection and trust his attention had been fostering in the girl, but it was a fleeing thing compared to the loyalty to so deeply ingrained in her.

With one order she could have them both killed and if she had to choose between a merging of their souls or being reduced to a vessel once more, death was the only choice she’d make.

Marika steeled herself, allowing both the mind numbing pain and his nonsensical emotions to wash over her.

Those memories of his. The understanding. The lack of hate.

Maybe she was the one being manipulated through their connection.

XOXO

Marika’s constant rage simmered down, overtaken by a reluctant laxness that left everything she kept guarded behind it open to him.

It was a simple change, but it made all the difference, the flames of his mana burning just a bit brighter as the pain that’d overtaken his body eased up, spread between the both of them. The world fought him every step of the way, trying to be rid of the energy it considered foreign, but he gritted his teeth, pushing on.

The gold of the Rune fell away, all trace of it soon burnt away.

Whether or not she cooperated didn’t matter. This was only going to end in their deaths or separation, no other outcome one he was truly willing to entertain, but the next part was far easier than it would’ve had she been fighting him.

The bit of mana he was able to force out into the world was far too faint to ever fill the now empty container of power before him.

But Marika? Her soul jumped at the opportunity to impose upon and fill the empty space. Just as it tried to combine itself with his, her soul took hold of the Great Rune.

As his mana receded, empty black lines left to form the Shard, the pale gold energy of her soul relit it.

Long golden locks of hair. Eyes with the same pale golden glow. A face twisted by the same pain he was feeling. As soon as the Shard was completely relit a body began to coalesce from its light, floating just in front of him.

He would’ve like to say he managed to catch her but her body fell upon his drained one, his back hitting the ground.

The faint steady breaths of someone sound asleep brushed across his chest.

Dammit. He swore internally.

“Onyx?” Melina stepped up to his side, lowering herself to kneel beside him, left in awe and entirely focused by sight before her, genuine surprise on her face in the form of a wider than usual eye. “This…this is-“

“Queen Marika, in the flesh.” He groaned out. The power the Shard contained or trying to separate them. The choice had been an easy one despite just how much power the Rune that was now apart of her had contained; it would’ve made for an interesting thing to study and help form a better defense against Grace, but it was risky.

That power came with a trade he wasn’t going to make or risk.

Melina stared down, frozen stiff.

He couldn’t help the pain chuckled that slipped out. Of course the woman that barely acknowledged her as anything more than a tool would be the person to get her to be so expressive.

Marika’s unconscious body. Nepheli’s bleeding out one. All that knights that remained in the castle and might still be willing to take up arms against those that killed their lord. Getting out of here was going to be a pain.

The sky suddenly darkened, a familiar dragon circling around before diving straight for them.

Or maybe not if she was willing to give them a ride.

He fully fell back, stretching out as he yawned. He’d made quite the trade off, but they were separated. Physically anyways.

Their souls were, unfortunately, still tethered together.

XOXO

(A/N: This would mark the final in their shared body arc. Marika sort of got something she wanted from Onyx but lets see how that monkey paw curls for her.)