The Reaper panted as he stood in front of a barricade with blood drenching the lower half of his body. Melina stood beside him with indifference after his kill of a giant Troll and seven Dire Wolves.

Drinking a Crimson Flask, the cuts and tears of his body were healed and his clothes were restored.

He wanted to be in top shape, or rather, presentable to whoever ran the show that was the Black Flame Cult.

Melina rubbed his back as they looked at the black tarps lined around the massive encampment. It was surprisingly a large force, but in comparison to Godrick's Soliders they were few.

Honestly, the Reaper was scared. He did expect a fight and with their clear strength in numbers, this looked like he would die a lot...

Melina held his hand, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"We'll take a cautious approach. We just want to know their motives and persuade them against it, right?" Melina asked.

"Right... thank you." The Reaper squeezed her hand before donning his scythe. 'I haven't died yet, but I have been stabbed... is it worse...?'

The Reaper watched the new Tarnished standing guard emerge from the camp and tilt his head seeing the two.

"What business do you have here?" The Tarnished asked, a black cloak covering their significant features.

"Audience. With whoever is in charge." The Reaper replied.

The Tarnished waved the two along, making the two follow silently. After passing the barricade they saw a rather lively camp filled with Tarnished in black cloaks or capes. Their forces didn't seem limited to mages and had even knights who held armaments with Black Flame Ashes of War.

The Tarnished around saw the Reaper and grew weary. His imposing presence via the Guiding Flame on his chest made those without it awe and stare.

Suddenly, the Reaper stops in his tracks, making the guard escorting him stop as well in confusion. "Is there some sort of problem...?"

Melina also wondered what was wrong but the Reaper's gaze fell forward, where a knight in charcoal grey armor with a white mist seeping from the seams for a ghastly presence sat deathly still.

The Tarnished guiding him slowly crept away as the two stared each other down.

The Deathwalker slowly stood up from the log he sat on and grabbed the rectangular greatsword at his side. As he slowly swiped it to the side, it became covered in a wispy white and grey flame, it's frigid chill paralyzing all but the Reaper and Melina.

After winning the bet against Airalin and Blair, those 70000 runes were put to good use. The Reaper believed with his new levels and stats he could fair quite well in a one-versus-one.

The Deathwalker took one step forward, as did the Reaper.

"You're guided... yet lost beyond comprehension." The Deathwalker began. "You lack purpose but you hold conviction. You exist yet you question it. You are as empty as a corpse. Tarnished through and through."

The Reaper didn't falter hearing his own thoughts repeated back to him. Word for word that was how he felt.

"Whether ignorance or innocence, that shall soon be replaced by determination. I know you well, Reaper. You will find one day the shoes you fill are yours and yours alone. Let grace guide you and follow the path of the Elden Lord." The Deathwalker took another step, as did the Reaper.

"Your morals, your values, and your beliefs will face trails unlike anything you could imagine. It will mold you and shape you into someone fit for Elden Lord should you let Grace guide you. What will you do?" The Deathwalker took another step, as did the Reaper.

The two were merely a few feet away from each other, and the Reaper's blank stare left the Deathwalker to await a response.

Elden Ring... Elden Lord.

Terms never spoken to the Reaper until now but his path was one engraved in his mind against his will. It was all he knew, from when he awoke to when he breathes. Regardless of his better judgement, an external force clawed at him to claim the Runes of the Shardbearers, but was that right? Should he do it just because he was asked?

That's not how he worked.

"I'll move forward. You may only cross a bridge when you get there. What right do I have to kill because instructed? If I must find another way to appease this voice in my head, so be it. But I'll do things my own way." The Reaper replied.

"A noble path. Treacherous and unforgiving. I commend you for such resolve but you shall find that Grace may not be so... graceful." The Deathwalker replied.

"I do what I must. Claiming the Great Runes of the Shardbearers is my task. I will become the Elden Lord and claim the Elden Ring." The Deathwalker turned away, letting his sword disappear to his inventory.

The Reaper watched him sit back down and stare into his soul.

"I'm gonna change this world. No matter what it takes..." The Reaper looked down and let his scythe disappear.

There was a brief silence before he could hear the Deathwalker nod.

"We shall meet again, Reaper. Under terms I'm unsure we will favor, but again nonetheless. Prepare yourself, for I will do the same." The Deathwalker gestured him to leave.

The Reaper walked away as Melina reappeared at his side, unable to read the expression on his face.

~•~

The Reaper let Melina ride Torrent in his stead upon request. He was seated behind her with his hands loosely around her waist, lost in thought.

"That didn't help. They're all so convicted to a path so... wrong. We're outsiders meddling in affairs we don't belong. That's our sole purpose— to disrupt whatever chaos or fucked up 'order' is going on— but killing them to do so? I just... don't know if I can follow such a path."

Melina was quiet. She didn't know he had already known his purpose, but actually denied it. He actually was the first she'd ever heard of a Tarnished against their calling. She was appalled.

"Is there a way to reason... with any of them?" The Reaper asked, holding her tighter as she rode further up the hill towards Stormveil Castle.

"...Some listen. Others don't. A small few would cast aside their traumas and prejudice before listening. What you seek would take persistence... the persistence of Immortality." Melina replied.

The Reaper let his head fall on her back and returned to his thoughts, making Melina concerned.

•

The Reaper sent his scythe to his inventory as he walked down a tunnel headed towards Stormveil Castle. It was a small walk after tearing down the ballista and squadron manning it, so his siege would soon be in motion after the short trek.

Melina was hidden, but for some reason, the Reaper could feel her presence. Almost like her cloak was over his shoulders.

The Reaper exit the tunnel, and made his way to the arch just before the gate to Stormveil Castle.

However, something was off

With a distant whistle, the Reaper looked up with winded eyes only to see a massive figure plummet towards him with malicious intent.

The Reaper flipped back, but the crash alone sent him flying back and sliding against the ground. Rolling backward onto his feet the Reaper looked up to see a humanoid figure with dry grey skin, a sand colored cloak over his body, and a sprouting of spiraling horns coming from the right side of their head.

"Foul Tarnished..." The figure's eyes seemed to peer through the smoke and dust they had kicked up. "In search of the Elden Ring."

The figure had swat away the dust with a large wooden staff, standing at a height beyond human limitations. They were nearly double the Reaper's size.

"Emboldened by the flame of amb..." They trailed off, staring down the Reaper as he stood up with his scythe forming in his right hand.

"Your eyes... they betray your very existence. You are an anomaly in the making." The figure noted, making the Reaper clench his fist tighter around the handle.

"Raise thy blade. We shall converse by the art of combat. You face the Fell Omen." The figure raised the wooden staff and elegantly held it parallel to his spine.

The Reaper's conflicted expression grew more tense as the Fell Omen slowly brought his staff behind him.

The Reaper sighed as Melina whispered from her incorporeal form, "Let this be your escape or your answer. Find your way. I leave this duty to you. Relay your message and carve your own path. I believe in you."

The Reaper spun his scythe back with a blank stare, and stopped when the blade circled around his back.

With no warning, the two disappeared in a gust of wind.

A clash of blue and yellow caused sparks of mana to splatter against the ground. A crater suddenly formed in the stone beneath them, as well as a gash of earth. The two appeared in midair with the Reaper's face contorted with strain as he parried a heavy downward slash from the Fell Omen's staff.

The two reappeared near the edge of the linear cliff with the Reaper dodging a stab from a golden-projected sword.

The Reaper spun his scythe and slashed at the Fell Omen's back but he leapt away and threw three consecutive daggers of light, similar to Melina. The Reaper side stepped each one before the two disappeared once more.

Another explosion of sparks littered the ground in the center of the cliff as the two struggled for momentum. The Reaper's scythe was trembling against the wooden staff as the Fell Omen stared down the Tarnished he resented with analytic confusion.

"You know your path yet you crave another. You seek peace yet embody destruction. You seek order yet you embody chaos. You are without a doubt an anomaly of great proportions." The Fell Omen suddenly dashed back, before sending two daggers.

The Reaper sidestepped both before seeing the Fell Omen's lunge close in on him.

The Reaper tried to block, but he was sent crashing into the ground from such a powerful smack.

Rolling to his feet and leapt over another attempted stab and slashed down at the Fell Omen's chest, causing him to slide back.

The two landed and lunged at each other again with the Reaper diving past a quick slash of the Fell Omen's light dagger. As he rolled to his feet the Reaper reeled back his scythe before throwing it with a yell.

The Fell Omen spun around from the failed lunge and parried the scythe away, only for it to suddenly circle back around and slash his back.

The Fell Omen scoffed but grit his teeth as he turned forward once more to see the Reaper closing in with vicious kick to his jaw.

With the momentum from the kick, the Reaper spun his body and summoned his scythe before slashing across the Fell Omen's face.

Unfortunately, the Fell Omen ducked before a massive Warhammer of light slammed right into the Reaper's body.

The Reaper's mangled body crashed against the ground and skid to a stop before it was covered in that golden flame.

The Reaper suddenly jolted back up and looked down at his scythe in shock.

He died.

He had actually died from the sheer impact alone.

The Reaper clenched his fists around the scythe with a glare and stood up to face the Fell Omen again.

"A visual reaction despite your knowledge. You are cursed with immortality yet you fear death. You understand what you do not know." The Fell Omen noted as well.

"Again, Tarnished. Tell me more." The Fell Omen spun his staff before pointing it at the Reaper.

With bottled emotions and a conflicting existence, the Reaper gave into his thoughts and growled as he lunged forward, his second scythe in his left hand.

The two spun forward with consecutive slashes that countered the others, causing the two to fly back.

The Reaper used one scythe to slide to a stop before reeling back the other with a deranged glare, completing predicting that the Fell Omen would appeared with his Warhammer reeled back in midair.

"STAR CLUSTER!" The Reaper screamed, and a twinkle of light danced along his positioned scythe before it burst forward with an explosion of blue and purple flames.

The Fell Omen skid back but the power of his attack was so great he rolled on his back and to his hands and knees.

"The power of change and the will to follow it. All that's left is that path. Where will you go? What will you do? And WHY?!" The Fell Omen shouted and rushed at the Reaper.

The Reaper suddenly threw away his scythes, popped his Physick, before summoning them again behind his back with a scream of anger.

The two disappeared and reappeared in the center of the cliff with two swift slashes of their blades, circling around each other to clash again and again, parrying each attack to follow the created opening with the next. The sparks continued to erupt from their weapons and dance against the ground as their footwork seemed to glide across the pavement.

The two were neatly at a standstill with the Reaper's Phantom and Raging Fury, and the Fell Omen could feel the intensity of each swing wasn't just power.

It was heart.

The Reaper was more than willing to do what was necessary to fight for what he believed in, but the Fell Omen wanted to know what that was.

With a b-twist over one of the Fell Omen's low horizontal slashes, the Reaper vaulted off the staff and slashed the Fell Omen's chest and chin, before spontaneously switching his momentum with another Star Cluster slash back downward.

The Fell Omen's head recoiled downward before he suddenly heard a metal clatter as the Reaper appeared behind him with both his scythes real far behind his back having finished a cross-slash.

The Fell Omen coughed and staggered on his feet before covering his mouth and turning to the Reaper.

"...I see. You've spoken to me emotions that not even pictures could paint. This light you've shined upon me will soon brighten this very world. Keep forward, Tarnished, for your fight has only begun. Hold tight to your beliefs and stay true to this path..." The Fell Omen began to fade away in a golden dust, before he parted with one last request.

"Bring about a new era... of peace..." 

The Reaper's widened eyes of fury remained on high alert despite having vanquished the threat. He stood up as his Raging Fury buff ended, and the Reaper looked to the fleeting golden dust with a frown.

"We'll meet again, huh... Fell Omen." The Reaper gave a nod to the dust, looking at the massive Health Bar in his vision disappear with a small sliver of red left...