Lily
“Lily,” Dad called out as he knocked on my door, “can I come in? There’s something I have to talk to you about.”
“Sure.” I replied, curious as to what brought my usually busy father to my door when we’d have dinner together soon, anyways.
After he entered, he closed the door behind him and sent a wary look at the maid collecting my soda cans standing in the room. I rolled my eyes as I saw that. “Dad, my maids won’t spill your secrets. Heck, I can order her to just not listen in and she’ll actively do her best to not hear a single word we say.” I would’ve understood the caution had it been anyone else but my maids dedicated all they were to me. In such a situation, there was no need for me to bother to make her leave for a simple conversation.
“If you say so.” Dad seemed resigned, probably aware that I wasn’t going to budge on this. My maids were everywhere in my castle for many a reason, the most important of which being the fact that I trusted them more than I trusted almost anyone else in it. If someone were to break their vows, if something were to prove my defences to not be as absolute as I believed them to be, my maids would know quite quickly.
“Anyways, what’d you want to talk about that couldn’t wait until dinner’s ready?” I chose to change the topic.
Dad hesitated before sighing. “What has Missy gotten up to since getting magic?”
I didn’t need to have Man of the New World to know that Missy had said something worrying to him when talking to our father earlier in the day but it helped me narrow down the possibilities of what, exactly, she had said. It just didn’t tell me how to answer.
If I told dad, it was a betrayal of Missy’s trust but might help her get how terrible her vision of a ‘hero’ was and that she should stop striving to be like that. If I didn’t tell him, he’d still have his suspicions and likely be quite worried simply because he wouldn’t know how bad it actually was and his mind would jump to the worst conclusions.
After several long moments, I made up my mind. “She’s obsessed with the idea of helping people like some kind of cartoon hero.” Even if it was a betrayal of her trust, I’d rather Missy be alive to be angry about it than dead.
As soon as he heard my words, dad seemed to age several years. “I thought it might be like that.” He ran a hand through his hair as he let out a deep sigh. “I really shouldn’t have encouraged her admiration for all those PRT hunters when she was younger.”
In all honesty, he was probably right. Missy still had various shirts, posters, mugs and far more with the usual PRT propaganda on it. Of course, I had to acknowledge that dad had done the exact same with my obsession for magic. For a normal person to learn magic usually took years of study and amounted to very little due to how little actual magic had been figured out and replicated. Despite that, I had countless books on the subject and I still had various magic-themed outfits.
Really, if Missy and I had never triggered, this probably would’ve been fine. Missy’d never have become a hunter and been put into a situation in which she believed she had to act ‘heroically’ while I’d probably just have studied magic for the rest of my life but eventually do it less once I’d take over dad’s company.
But we’d both triggered and now I spent more time than not exploring supernatural powers while Missy wanted desperately to be the kind of storybook hero she’d come to idolize.
“It’s not your fault. It’s not as if we’d have ever seen this coming, anyways.” People didn’t really expect to trigger. Partially because the process was rarely talked about in public and more something that people interested in magic learnt about and partially because those who knew very well what a trigger was didn’t want to talk about it.
In schools, they merely taught that triggers involved the awakening of dormant magical abilities and very explicitly didn’t mention the trauma involved or how triggers happened.
It was a decision I agreed with to be honest. To tell people that they ‘just’ needed to be severely traumatized if they had the potential to trigger? Even putting aside the amount of people that lacked that potential and wouldn’t even know about it, that was likely to end up with a rapidly climbing rate of disastrous triggers that’d inevitably cause immense chaos.
Chaos was fun to witness but not when my parents lived in this world and I made most of my money here.
“I still should’ve made it clear that she shouldn’t be aiming to be like that. That these hunters aren’t as great as their PR people made them seem.” Dad replied with clenched fists and gritted teeth.
Part of me, the part that thrived on chaos and misery, wanted to tell him about Missy’s encounter with Alduin. To witness his horror and fury and self-loathing as he heard about the way his daughter’s desire for heroics nearly got her killed.
The sensible part of me slapped that one up the head and told it to shut the fuck up for now. I could enjoy the misery of almost anyone without even feeling a sliver of remorse but my family was off-limits. “You had other things to worry about.” I winced even as I said it, painfully aware of the divorce proceedings going on. Really, my parents were basically speedrunning the damn thing as if they’d long since come to an agreement on what to do with their stuff and it’s just been Missy and I that they had been unable to figure out what to do with.
…I hated how accurate that line of thought almost certainly was. I despised it with every fibre of my being but there was nothing I could do about it aside from continuing to ignore it.
“Please stop trying to reassure me. I’m aware of the circumstances that led to this and none of it should’ve been able to prevent me from looking out for the wellbeing of you and your sister.” Dad told me sternly. “Now, if I am going to do a better job as a father again, I need to know how bad it is and what you’re already doing to deal with it.”
“Alright then.” I gave in in the face of his determination. Really, what could I say to that? I was bad enough at making people feel better in the first place. Unless I was manipulating them, that is, but I couldn’t make myself view dad as just another puppet to pull the strings of for my entertainment.
I didn’t tell him about Missy getting injured but I did let him know about the fact that she had yet to succeed at helping a world. Told him about how much she struggled with that fact and how I’d been using it to get her to let me teach her before redirecting her towards dad to work on a less dangerous way of helping people.
By the end, dad seemed miserable but still determined. “I’ll help Missy with her business ventures. I’m guessing your guild no longer needs my financial support? Some people might cause problems if I pull too many resources for you two, after all.”
“I’ll be fine without it.” I waved him off. My lectures alone made enough to cover any expenses the guild accrued.
“Thank you. I’ll make it up to you on your birthday.” Dad replied as if he weren’t aware of just how rich my singular lecture alone had made me.
I didn’t need him to probably spend a lot of money on my birthday gifts. I just also wasn’t going to stop him if he really wanted to do that.
Melina
“Did you ever eat dragon meat before? I’m considering throwing some to the maids and seeing what they can make out of it.” Lilian asked me, looking at the corpses of the three glintstone dragons contemplatively. “I mean, cooking the meat might be difficult but I could probably teach them fire magic strong enough for it. Or I could enchant the stoves and ovens.”
I sighed as I materialized, “I remember little of my past as is, Lilian. Do you truly think that I remember whether or not I once consumed the flesh of a beast that killed more people than not? Besides, for all you know, it might be highly toxic.”
“Well, their souls are quite tasty so I can’t help but wonder if they themselves are just as delicious when properly prepared.” I was fairly certain my contractor was joking but I couldn’t be sure. Not when I did believe that she was interested in the answer.
“If you die to eating dragon flesh and not having some method to deal with any potential consequences and strand me outside the Lands Between, I will be quite cross.” I warned her.
In response, Lilian barked out a laugh, seemingly in a good mood despite the conversations she’d had during the day. The dragon blood on her sword and the souls she had consumed were likely a large part of the reason for that. “Don’t worry, I’m fairly certain I can literally burn any foreign substances out of my body without harming myself!”
“If you must test the taste of dragon flesh, at least have someone else take a look at it beforehand. The people of your world or even that friend of yours ought to be quite capable of telling whether or not it is harmful to consume.” I advised, unwilling to risk her dying in such a stupid manner and leaving me stranded in another world.
“Alright, alright. I will let Amelia take a look before having my maids cook some for me.” Lilian replied far too casually for my liking. “Anyways, I felt like I might as well tell you right now that I intend to take on Radahn soon.”
Her words surprised me but not by much. After her display against Astel, it made sense that she desired to bear witness to one of, if not the greatest master of gravity sorceries – even if his mind had long since been eroded by the Scarlet Rot. “Are you certain that is wise? The Starscourge is infinitely greater than Godrick.” I felt the need to point out.
“The problem is that every demigod is. Ranni guards her mother from a distance and the Great Rune itself isn’t even particularly interesting to me unless I can find a way to make use of it without the egg it is held in at the moment. Ranni’s own Great Rune, meanwhile, has been discarded somewhere. Rykard is…a problem, to say the least. Malenia might just decapitate me within moments if I were to try and face her. Mohg is a possibility but not one I want to deal with at the moment. And I know enough of Morgott’s strength to know that there’s a decent chance of him killing me if I go after him now.” Lilian explained and, somehow, I could understand the logic that led her to picking what was arguably the greatest of the demigods as her next target.
General Radahn, diminished as he was and with Lilian wielding Scarlet Rot herself, could die to her blade. Most of the demigods would not die to her as she was now.
“If you are certain, I will not argue any further than I already have.” I folded quite easily, accepting her judgement on the matter.
I was aware that Lilian could’ve just brought me to the foot of the Erdtree at any given moment but Morgott was also there. If she desired to possess another Great Rune before fighting him, so be it.
Our contract never required her to hurry, after all.
Lily
I had to be honest, I had never actually killed Greyoll the ‘intended’ way. I’d played Elden Ring long after it had actually released since I hadn’t cared about souls games before that point so, when I played, while I’d had no idea how to get the ability to level up until I gave in about two to three hours after I started playing and looked it up, I had known to just kill Greyoll with a bleed weapon.
Sensing the way her and her physically closest children were connected now was almost enough to distract me from the pillar of mana off in the distance. Alas, merely seeing the spell that gave the Starscourge his title was enough to fascinate me.
From this distance, without some kind of vision enhancement, I saw no details but I saw how the massive amount of mana reached into the sky before splitting off into countless branches which each reached for a single star. Had anyone been able to see that rather than it requiring mana sight to be able to perceive it in such a way, the Lands Between would’ve had yet another gigantic magic tree.
I had expected it to look similar to this. The sight still stunned me and made me question what, exactly, I was thinking when I declared that I’d kill the monster responsible for that.
‘The Scarlet Rot is still wearing him down.’ I reminded myself but was still unable to suppress the shiver that ran down my spine as I began to calculate how much more mana than me Radahn must possess to be able to keep this spell going indefinitely. Even with my efficiency, it’d take dozens or even hundreds of times my mana to do so.
In comparison, Greyoll somehow connecting her life to that of these five children of hers was barely interesting at all. I’d soon eat all six of those souls to figure it out, anyways.
On that note, “Hadou #88: Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raiho,” I chanted, my palm pointing towards one of the dragons before emitting a beam of concentrated blue lightning that didn’t stop at just tearing through the head of one of the dragons but eviscerate most of its body and then continue through the landscape of Caelid for quite a bit. And, once it stopped progressing, it proceeded to explode, properly eviscerating…whatever was over there with enough force that the aftershocks ruined the rest of the dragon’s corpse.
‘Note to self: Hadou in the 80s are too strong for fodder dragons.’ I still got to snack on the dragon’s soul, though and, in the process, I was pretty sure I’d already discovered the trick Greyoll had used to make my mana senses perceive massive amounts of her mana in her children.
A couple steps with Shunpo and some swings of my zanpakuto were enough to end the slaughter I’d come here to enact and let me eat some extra dragon souls.
It also let me confirm my theory before I’d even bothered to return to Greyoll’s dying form so as to eat her soul, too. Somehow, the mother of the non-ancient dragons had put pieces of her soul into these five children of hers.
And, as I witnessed her memories, I became completely and utterly certain that I would never do the same because the process required one to go through pregnancy. In Greyoll’s case, that just meant making some eggs and infusing them with pieces of her soul before laying them but, for me, that’d mean going through nine months of misery for a child I didn’t want and which would actively weaken me if I infused part of my soul into it. I wouldn’t even get to survive as long as they did or anything like that! I’d just take massive amounts of damage if said child died!
Even an actual horcrux rather than this horcrux-at-home technique Greyoll had discovered wouldn’t have been able to tempt me into butchering my soul but adding pregnancy to the mix just made me completely and utterly certain that that technique would never be used by me.
I shook my head to get rid of those horrible thoughts in it and instead focused on what was in front of me.
“Now, how exactly am I meant to put all of that into my inventory?” I mused, looking at the titanic dragon corpse. I could, theoretically, put anything into my inventory as long as I could move it. The issue was that Greyoll couldn’t even move herself.
She was also almost certainly somewhat rotten. Or, well, she probably carried Scarlet Rot even if she herself hadn’t had any symptoms. Being in Caelid made that more likely than not. With that being the case, I certainly wasn’t going to try to make a meal out of her and her brood. I could survive that without issue due to my immunity to diseases but I had no desire to test if my maids could be infected with Scarlet Rot and someone had to actually cook the damn thing.
Really, if I didn’t find it to be an interesting challenge, I’d have just left Greyoll’s corpse where it was. Alas, I was curious now and so I began to gather both mana and the Force, combining gravity sorcery and telekinesis to barely be able to lift her body.
It was…far less difficult than I’d expected it to be and, after I managed to press my hand to the corpse’s head, I put it into my inventory, grinning from ear to ear all the while.
I had no true use for the corpse but being able to move that was a good sign for my upcoming battle with Radahn.
“I should pay Ekzykes a visit before leaving.” I decided cheerfully. I had no intention of ever using his breath when Scarlet Aeonia and Rotten Butterflies were options for me but my hunger for dragon souls was far from sated yet and I was in the area.
Might as well make a feast out of it.
Lily’s having fun. A lot of fun, even. The dragons of the Lands Between would rather she didn’t
Anyways, hope you enjoyed and let me know if you have any feedback