Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 51: Queen Marika the Eternal

A/N: Haha, so you know how last chapter sort of ended on a cliffhanger? Well so does this one. The exact same cliffhanger, in fact.

-x-X-x-

She's still getting her wits about her, when she hears that familiar voice. The visage might be deceptive, but the voice... the voice is still that of Lunar Princess Ranni. Marika would recognize it anywhere. After all, a number of her nightmares over the years had focused heavily on a facsimile of the Lunar Princess mocking her for her failure. The Elden Beast's doing, no doubt.

Queen Marika the Eternal lifts her head and glares a most heated glare at the blue-skinned, four armed witch who DARES to come before her. Except, Ranni is distressingly unfazed. Certainly, Marika is not at her best, but even at her worst, a God should be able to handle a Demigod. Marika's heart damn near stops again in her chest, when she realizes Ranni has ascended in her time locked away. The Lunar Princess is no demigod. Not any longer. She is no potential successor. She is a fully realized Goddess in her own right.

They make eye contact, the two of them. Then and there in the heart of the Erdtree, with only that strange Tarnished and the kindling maiden to bear witness, they begin to gather their power to themselves. If it is battle that-

"▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

Marika's head whips around, as does Ranni's. The heart of the Erdtree, displayed as a singularly rocky, barren platform until this moment, abruptly changes. Gone are the shadows that coated its sides mere moments before. Gone is the solid, cracked floor beneath them. Instead, they find themselves atop an endless reflective pool, surrounded on all sides by ghostly, ephemeral, golden representations of the Erdtree.

Knowing better than most what this means, Queen Marika gets to her feet. Not to do battle with Ranni as she had initially intended, however. The Lunar Princess might still be primed for combat, but she would be a fool to try and fight her here and now, as she quickly learns when their TRUE foe finally reveals itself.

Rising out of the reflective surface the ground has become... is the Elden Beast. Another roar resounds from its 'mouth', echoing and reverberating through them all and throughout the area as well.

"▅▅▃▃▄▄▅▅▃▃▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▃▅▅!"

There is nothing human about the creature. Nothing Numen either. Nothing that can be said to be anything of this world, for the Elden Beast is NOT of this world. Tis a vassal beast of the Greater Will, a steward sent by the Outer God to enact its desires upon the Lands Between. It is the living incarnation of the concept of Order, and the reason Marika has been forced to consume her other half, for Radagon's loyal zealotry to it had turned him against her.

And now... now it means to kill them all. Starting with her, apparently. The Elden Beast's long neck swoops back and forth as its glowing golden eyes take in the assembled. Then, it focuses on her and lifts one of its glowing, clawed hands in her direction. Immediately, Marika feels a pressure on her newly restored body.

She fights back, of course. Resists it, even as it tries to make of her something she is not... but also something she realizes she was always meant to eventually become. A weapon. It is trying to reduce her down to nothing more than a blade for its purposes. This was always to be her fate, but now that she has been healed, she can fight it with every fiber of her being. She can... she can't win though.

Much like Radagon could not defeat her without the assistance of the Elden Beast, she in turn could not defeat the Elden Beast as she is. Even with all her power, even with all her might, the Greater Will's steward was slowly but surely shaving away what made her who and what she was. Queen Marika the Eternal, reduced down to a sword.