The Elden Lion - Problems in Paradise. (Patreon)

Harry Potter, Royal Palace – Leyndell.

"To be completely honest, I never thought I would see you again," Harry said with complete naturalness, carefully observing every movement Malenia made with a calculating gaze.

She looked simply radiant, not a single trace of the Scarlet Rot that had ravaged her body during their last confrontation remained, back when Harry had yet to Transcend.

The Golden Lion still smiled whenever he thought about that glorious battle, the second hardest fight of his entire damned life, surpassed only by the final challenge against Radahn before the Great Reset.

"How are you here? I thought your essence had become one with the Great Void alongside the rest of Old Leyndell," Harry said calmly, analyzing Malenia's soul with curiosity.

There was no doubt that this was the same warrior maiden Harry had danced with so many centuries ago, but the ravages of the infection had vanished completely, along with the madness and obsession that had once consumed her.

Malenia did not answer immediately. Instead, she moved her sword with elegance, demonstrating that her martial mastery remained entirely intact before planting the blade into the floor of the Palace and focusing her gaze upon Harry.

"Your dominion over the Lands Between is absolute, and the Erdtree answers your commands without hesitation... however, your prolonged absence left the Realm... vulnerable in a certain way. Without your Divine Radiance operating at full strength, Leyndell became the target of external incursions," the red-haired woman said with complete calm, provoking more than obvious reactions from Harry and his wives.

"WHAT?" the three Queens asked simultaneously, their brows furrowed and their eyes fixed upon the Demigoddess, who nodded softly.

"What exactly do you mean?" Harry asked with restrained fury. Someone had dared to launch a damned incursion into HIS World, into HIS Power Seat.

And Harry intended to make whoever was responsible pay dearly for such insolence.

Malenia nodded softly toward the beautiful Queens before turning to look at the Elden King and answering.

"Incursions, reeking of foreign magic, dimensional thresholds spewing forth strange warriors. During your absence, the Erdtree summoned my soul from the Great Void in defense of the Realm. I have served as Defender of the Kingdom while you were gone," the red-haired warrior said formally, looking directly at Harry with complete calm.

For a moment, not a single sound could be heard inside the throne room. The newly arrived witches, the Queens, and even Harry himself remained completely silent.

And then...

It happened.

The throne room began to tremble, shaking the entire Palace and causing all of the newly arrived witches to collapse to the floor with startled cries, overwhelmed by the monstrous power of Leyndell's Sovereign, who was now surrounded by an aura of golden flames so powerful that every woman present, including Malenia herself, was forced to kneel.

Even Marika, Ranni and Melina, they were goddesses, but at the end of the day...they all belong to the Golden Lion, the Elden Lord of the Lands Between.

And he was...Furious.

"What's happening? Why is he so angry?" Lily asked worriedly, looking toward Ranni, the uncertainty in her eyes more than evident.

But Harry himself answered his mother's question.

"There is no mortal capable of crossing the threshold into the Lands Between without my knowledge. My dominion over these Lands is absolute. I am aware of the fluttering wings of the smallest insect within this Realm... if something like an incursion occurred during my absence, then it can only mean one thing..." said the King of Leyndell.

And at that point, Marika was the one who finished her husband's sentence.

"Another God, a foreign one... is sticking its filthy nose into our affairs," the Queen said, her golden hair moving elegantly beneath the power Harry continued to emanate, her powerful golden eyes reflecting interest and a calculating gleam.

"How long ago was the last incursion?" the Sovereign asked sternly, focusing his full attention upon the red-haired warrior.

Malenia attempted to stand, but her expression made it clear that doing so would be... impossible.

Harry simply looked at her with amusement and replied, the mockery in his voice more than evident.

"I defeated and killed you while I was still a Tarnished. The infamous Blade of Miquella. I used your own sword to cut off your head and send you into the Void... what makes you think you could possibly be my equal now?" asked the Golden Lion as he lifted Malenia by the throat, his eyes still glowing like two golden wells of pure magic.

To Harry's confusion, however, Malenia did not even attempt to free herself. The red-haired warrior simply held the monarch's gaze, submitting completely to Harry's will before answering with complete calmness.

"You misunderstand my intentions, Elden Lord. I was born from your Grace, your essence is what gave shape to my body, and it is yours to shape or destroy as you see fit. Malenia, the Blade of Miquella, is gone. I have taken her place. Your word is absolute law, your desires shall be my orders, and your enemies shall become corpses," the red-haired woman said solemnly, surprising both Harry and his wives.

The Sovereign of Leyndell was about to answer the red-haired warrior when...

"FATHER!!!!"

Harry's eyes widened in absolute surprise as he immediately turned toward the horizon, toward the source of the desperate prayer.

Harry recognized that voice.

It belonged to Maeve.

The Oldest of his forest daughters with Marika and the leader of the Tree Maidens.

And she was asking for help.

Begging for her father.

And judging by the sudden concern that appeared on Marika's face, she was calling for her mother as well.

Maeve, despite her gentle nature, was extremely capable and powerful, but she was not a warrior. If she was asking for help...

Then she was truly in trouble.

And by the Great Tree, Harry would answer with all the fury of Leyndell behind him.

Apparently every woman present noticed that something was wrong, because Lily immediately stepped forward and asked hesitantly.

"Harry, my love? What's happening?" the red-haired witch asked, and it was more than evident that every witch in the room wanted to know the answer as well.

Alas, Harry's mind was already far beyond the Palace. Unconsciously, he had already begun planning the response to the Nereid Colony.

"Problems. Stay inside the castle, all of you. I have work to do," he said solemnly as he released Malenia.

Harry looked at her coldly before speaking.

"If your words are true... if it is true that you are now my loyal servant, then swear the oath. Submit before me, swear your blade to the Throne of Leyndell, and help me exterminate the insolent outsiders who have dared profane our home," Harry said firmly.

And Malenia did not hesitate.

The red-haired warrior immediately knelt before Harry in complete submission, filling the Golden Lion with anticipation.

It was time to hunt.

Princess Maeve, Resting Glade – Lands Between.

"ROAAAAAR!"

The Princess roared as she slammed both arms into the forest floor and unleashed a storm of murderous roots against the disgusting outsiders.

Their magic was putrid and... simply wrong.

It reeked of death.

They were similar to the women Father had created within the Capital, yet less elegant and... far more...dirty and stupid.

Much more savage, Maeve thought with hatred as she watched the destruction these animals were inflicting upon her beloved forest.

Their skin was pale like the ashes of an extinguished bonfire.

Their faces appeared carved from funeral stone.

Where eyes should have existed, there were only sickly violet lights radiating corrupt foreign magic, tiny dead suns staring back at the world.

Individually these creatures were not truly powerful, mere vermin for her and her sisters to practices their Aim.

But their damned Leader...

That one-eyed old bastard...

"Forward, my Einherjar! Carve a path toward that damned Tree!" the old man barked in his putrid unkown language.

He was tall.

Taller than any being Maeve had ever seen, with the sole exceptions of her Father and Mothers.

Heavy dark furs covered his body, their green-lined edges seeming to absorb the very light of the forest around him.

He did not walk like a warrior but like something far older.

His face was marked by age, but those years did not seem like weakness, this Being was powerful, ruthless and cunning.

A dangerous combination.

One of his eye remained hidden beneath a worn leather patch, or maybe he had lost it, she doesn't really care to be honest.

But the one that was visible...

That eye was blue and it carried a peculiar gleam that Maeve had only ever seen in her Father and her Mothers.

The mark of Divinity.

The Tree Maiden clenched her jaw as she summoned additional thorn barriers and intercepted a monstrous feline beast that was moments away from killing one of her sisters, before she focused again in the Old Man.

Ancient runes covered the old man's bare scalp and extended down his skin like petrified roots.

They were tattoos.

And yet they seemed far more than that.

As though they had been carved into his flesh from the moment of his birth.

And that was without mentioning the two cursed birds perched upon his shoulders.

Nothing more than puppets.

Extensions of his own being.

Creatures without souls.

Without will.

Abominations, Maeve thought with disgust.

In his hand he carried a... spear, utterly unlike anything Maeve had ever seen before, covered in symbols so ancient and alien that not even the spirits of the forest would have been capable of reading them. The wood itself appeared older than the trees surrounding them, as though it had been carved from something that predated the very concept of forests.

They needed help.

Maeve had already called for her beloved Father, and she knew it was only a matter of time before reinforcements from Leyndell arrived.

And then another invader made his appearance.

Clearly less powerful than the old man, but far above the cannon fodder surrounding him.

His hair was golden with a massive sword crackling with lightning rested in his hands.

And worst of all...

He was laughing.

Laughing like an animal as he cut through sacred trees and butchered centuries of growth without a care in the world.

The sound alone filled Maeve with fury.

The outsider enjoyed causing pain.

Enjoyed destruction.

Enjoyed watching beautiful things break, he was nothing more than a beast, one that she would put out of her misery.

The Princess prepared to raise another line of living barriers in defense of her beloved home.

And then...she felt it.

The presence of her beloved Father.

The Golden Lion had arrived.

Maeve's eyes widened as overwhelming relief flooded her chest.

For a brief moment she was blinded as a colossal golden bolt descended from the heavens and crashed directly into the battlefield before the defensive line her sisters had created.

The impact was cataclysmic and the ground itself exploded.

Ancient trees bent beneath the force of the shock wave.

Golden fire spread across the battlefield like divine judgment and yet, not a single wood singer was hurt...not a single tree was destroyed or burned...

But the enemies...

The entire invading army was struck.

Thousands of bodies were hurled through the air.

More than half of the invading cannon fodder was instantly reduced to charred corpses.

For a heartbeat the battlefield disappeared beneath blinding golden light.

The soulless invaders screamed as the forest shook.

And even the old one-eyed Bastard was forced to halt his advance, looking with calculation toward the Light.

And when the Golden Radiance finally faded, Maeve smiled.

Relief.

Pride.

Absolute certainty.

All three emotions filled her at once.

Standing before the shattered battlefield was her beloved Father.

The Golden Lion.

The Elden King.

The Sovereign of Leyndell.

Harry Potter stood clad in his golden armor, every inch of it shining with divine power, the Great Runes flowed across his body like rivers of molten sunlight, while his golden eyes burned with enough power to make the air itself tremble around him.

At his side stood the Crimson Maiden.

Malenia.

Returned from death itself and ready for war once more.

Behind them marched warriors of Leyndell.

Knights.

Guardians.

Veterans.

An army forged beneath the banner of the Erdtree, brought from the Void to defend the Lands Between from this plague.

Prepared.

Disciplined.

Ready to kill and ready to Die for the Lion King.

The enemies had stop, looking at her Father with caution and...even fear.

Good, thought Maeve, they found themselves standing directly between the jaws of the Lion.

And the hunt was about to begin.