Bolstering the Golden

Am back! The following updates won't be as consistent as I have a lot of work, but I'll do my best. The medical emergency was getting bitten by an unknown spider which gave me a skin rash that spread to most of my body. I sadly did not become spiderman. : (

***

Wanting to keep himself occupied, he busied himself with [Order Meditation], visualizing the Elden Ring with Focus to bolster FP regeneration. He'd recently levelled it up to level 5 after being torn in half by the Night's Cavalry, and the change in using it was akin to night and day.

He couldn't take full advantage of it unless he had a few offensive Incantations or Sorceries, but the generous increase in Intelligence and Mind was incentive enough for its levelling. Hours passed as he lost himself in meditation, a small part of his mind keeping tabs on the collapsed queen. Swallowing an entire sleep pot would've been quite the sedative, and sure enough, it took the sun taking its place in the sky once more for Gilka to move.

[Golden Vow]

[Order's Blade]

Clad in Night and Gold, he stood before the fallen Demi-Human Queen, whose eyes fluttered open, awash with fear.

Her voice was best described as guttural. Intelligent, but laced with a primal aspect that evoked the image of a beast attempting to make conversation.

"Where am I?!" she hissed in confusion, attempting to reach for her sceptre but failing miserably with her broken arms. "My mind shall not be taken prisoner again!"

Godrick's gilded Greatspear slammed into the stone before her giant face, stopping her from yelling for help.

"Call for help, and I shall skin thee alive whilst thou watchest thy children skewered upon pikes," he growled back. "I am not the one who wrested control over thy mind, Gilka, but I shall be the one to rend thy body asunder if thou dost not deign to listen."

Gilka shrank back, equal parts fury and wariness evident in her eyes.

"What... are you?"

"I am Godrick the Golden, Demigod of the Golden Lineage and Slayer of the Night Cavalry," he replied, removing his helmet, golden locks cascading across his shoulders as aurous eyes bore into Gilka's black ones. "And I am here to make thee an offer thou canst not refuse."

***

"I refuse," Gilka spat at his feet. "I'd rather die than sell my kind into slavery."

"I am not looking for slaves, only soldiers," Godrick frowned, his hand tightening around his Greatspear.

"Is that what you tell yourself to sleep better at night?" she snarled. "Where was the Golden Lineage when our kind was persecuted and cursed? When the black ones massacred us? Enslaved us? Where?!"

"Black ones?" Godrick tilted his head. "Who?"

Trepidation reflected in Gilka before she shook her head, which only intensified his curiosity.

"What is the last thing thou dost remember?" he pressed, only to be met with a growl and the bestial snap of Gilka's jaws.

"Begone from here, demon!" she spat. "Clad in gold you may be, but your heart is just as black as the others."

"Thou speakest of darkness, yet knowest nought of my heart," Godrick snorted. "If Gold offends thee, then tremble, for in its gleam, thy own shadow is revealed."

Gilka shuddered as Godrick took a step forward, desperately attempting to move her immobile limbs.

"The Golden Order can rot for all I care," he declared, shocking Gilka. "I am not the monster thou think me to be, but thy kind is everything I believe them to be—merciless, bloodthirsty, and willfully savage. Ye scorn intelligence, keeping thy children akin to hounds, discarding an integral part of thyself. Neither beast nor man—a mistake."

Gilka deflated further, her eyes showing defiance, but her body showing otherwise.

"I offer thee a way out, to be treated as any other human, yet thou dost reject it," Godrick chastised. "I can reunite thee with thy sisters, yet it seems to me thou wishest to meet the end of my spear."

"Sisters...?" Gilka's voice cracked as she looked at Godrick with a hidden plea. "Where?! You know of them?"

"Margot, Maggie, Marigga, and another whose name escapes me," he nodded and was surprised when Gilka slammed her head into the stone floor, cracking it further.

"Take me to my sisters, and my tribe shall serve you with loyalty," she announced, her previous malice and anger vanishing.

The change in attitude gave him whiplash, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Thou shalt obey my word without question, deferring to me as thy sole lord, aiding me in my conquest," he said, kneeling before her head. "In return, I shall strive to reunite thee with thy sisters and lift the Demi-Humans from their descent into debauchery."

"I shall not let my people become cannon fodder," Gilka said in a last bit of resistance as she struggled to get to her feet.

"I shall treat them as I treat my men, given you stick to your end of the deal," he replied, to which Gilka nodded tiredly.

"Godrick the Golden," Gilka said, looking up at him. "I hope I haven't doomed my tribe."

"Thou hast not," Godrick's otherworldly face twisted into a smile as he laid his clawed hand upon Gilka's leathery forehead.

[Godrick's Glory]

***

The hallowed Elden Ring stood in the distance, its size unfathomable, its branches nearly enveloping the entirety of the Dectus Plateau. Yet, with what Godrick had told him and his men, Earnan had been putting faith in an Order built on lies.

He had given his blood, sweat, and service to a false deity, whose current absence was a clear indicator of the falsehood of the Golden Order. The presence of Those Who Live In Death was enough for him to begin questioning it, but the Golden Seed was the final coffin.

He sat in the orange grass, with a Golem Archer for company, furiously writing in a diary which he'd managed to dig out of the supplies. It was a rare moment of quiet that he'd get as a Commander. Usually, he'd be responsible for hundreds of men, but most of them had been sent ahead by the Lord, leaving a lot less on his plate.

"Good morning, Commander," Forthus, his second-in-command, said as he trudged up the small mound.

So much for a quiet moment.

"Yes, Forthus," Earnan put away the stylus as Forthus saluted him, looking quite hesitant. "Something on your mind?"

"Maybe, sir," the young man sighed, scratching his stubble while giving the gigantic golem next to them a wary glance.

"Go on then," Earnan gestured next to him. "I've never seen you like this."

"I've never felt like this, sir," Forthus shrugged and sat down, the Erdtree's glow reflecting in his dull gold irises. "I'm just a tad bit overwhelmed with everything."

"Can't blame you, son," Earnan smiled, patting his second-in-command on the shoulder. "Our Lord has a penchant for shattering our perspective on the world."

Forthus nodded before sighing, "I've never been outside Leyndell proper, you know. The Outskirts maybe, but this is the farthest I've ever been."

"I understand," Earnan nodded. "We've seen things that not a single soldier can claim to have seen."

"Yes, indeed," Forthus glanced at the Golem once more. "Our lord has an ambition worthy of a Demigod, but are we worthy of him?"

"Pardon?" Earnan frowned.

"We have all been thinking that," Forthus looked back at his colleagues in the small camp they'd set up. They were all covered in dirt, sweat, and grime, given their long journey. "Given time, Lord Godrick will have the Lands-Between in the palm of his hand, of that I have no doubt, but how can we hope to stand up to what he might face in his journey? This very golem could kill us all with a single sweep!"

"You fear that we shall hold our Lord back?" Earnan raised a brow, before looking at the swirling golden lines burned into his arm.

"Yes, I do."

"I somehow doubt that."

Forthus frowned but was interrupted by a golden leaf fluttering past his face.

"Is that..."

Earnan scrambled to his feet as it began to slowly rain golden leaves, every ache and sore part of his body finding relief when an Erdtree leaf brushed past his body.

It was truly magical. Golden leaves drifted down from the unfathomably Brobdingnagian Erdtree, contrasting greatly with the purplish-yellow sky, adorning the sea of orange. It would've been a spiritual experience if it were not for the fact that they had been told the truth of the Golden Order.

Perhaps a small part of them wished that they had experienced this before their Lord

 had broken the news. Its beauty felt hollow otherwise.

"The Lord is here!" A loud shout accompanied by rumbling earth made Earnan and Forthus turn back to see a sight that they would remember for the rest of their lives.

Hundreds of Demi-humans of all shapes and sizes, from the smallest whelp to the gigantic Queen at the front, were haphazardly making their way down the hill. It looked as though they were trying their best to be orderly, but were failing miserably. The Queen, who towered over them all, held a sceptre with a muscled arm tattooed with a golden pattern eerily similar to Earnan's, barking orders at her tribe.

But their eyes were on the giant armoured figure riding on a Funeral steed, carrying a long Crystal Greatspear.

"To me, my men! Let us take the Dectus Lift and continue our march to Stormveil!" Godrick boomed when he was close enough. "There is no better time, for even the Erdtree weeps at our departure."

"To Glory and Eternal Dominion!"

"To Glory and Eternal Dominion!"

"Liurnia awaits!"

***