We return to the Prophet. He, Hyetta and Melina have just left Caelid on Torrent. The clear skies and green grass of Limgrave meet them.
They descend south, not going down the road to Summonwater.
The Third Church of Marika looms in the background.
They stop by the Third Church of Marika.
The Prophet sees Marika's grace in the center of the church.
He sits down and meditates. Melina: Ah. You sought Marika's grace this whole time.
Hyetta sits next to him. Hyetta: A rest is good. Melina, to the Prophet: Have you considered what you will do now?
Melina: You do not have Radahn's Great Rune... Melina: But Knight Istvan has been defeated.
Melina: And yet you refrained from having his body devoured by the Serpent. Melina: Will you return to Volcano Manor?
Hyetta: Forgive me for inquiring, m'lady, Hyetta: but what will you do?
Melina: Good question. Melina: I still cannot see my purpose in all this.
Voice, offscreen: Help! HEEEEEEELP! Melina, moving to the west: Who is that?
Melina looks outside of the church. In the distance she sees a pair of Kaiden Sellsword on horseback with demi-humans. They have captured people. Melina: Slavers, I see.
A closer look at the demi-humans who are captured. One is Boc, who is calling out. Boc: HEEEEELP! HELP, CULLY!
The Prophet stands up. Melina: Ah.
The Prophet summons Torrent. Melina: You intend to help him? Hyetta: Of course! A true champion of the people!
The Sellswords and the demi-humans ride off with their cargo.
One Sellsword sees the Prophet charging into the scene.
The Sellsword raises his greatsword, the Dismounter.
The Prophet raises his hand, as he always does before throwing a fireball. He tries to mold the fireball in his hand.
However, the gold around his hand becomes slightly bloody; in pain, his hand becomes flat again.
Melina: You...haven't recovered from fighting the general. The Sellsword charges in.
The Sellsword swings; Torrent narrowly dodges the sword.
The Prophet and the Sellsword square off, their steeds facing each other.
They charge toward one another.
The Sellsword swings again; the Prophet extends his hand.
A fiery explosion is emitted from the Prophet's palm, performing the Catch Flame.
The Sellsword falls off his horse, his clothing on fire.
Melina is looking at the abductors. Melina: They're getting away.
She returns her gaze to the Prophet, who has dismounted Torrent.
He uses the cape from the Tree Sentinel's armor to put out the Sellsword's fire.
The Sellsword rolls around, the fire dispersing.
On all fours, the Sellsword glares at the Prophet.
Sellsword: What's wrong with you? You attack men trying to make an honest living?
Hyetta: Honest? Those men were screaming for help. Sellsword: Well, I wasn't much different, when I came to the Lands Between.
Hyetta: My lord intends to save those men. Be thankful he showed you mercy. Sellsword: I don't want your damn mercy. Sellsword: ...
Sellsword: You're not getting past the Bridge of Sacrifice. Men from Stormveil keep it, and they've shut it down because of the Misbegotten. Hyetta: So they're heading to the Weeping Peninsula.
Sellsword: That's right. They're hardly people - demi-human slaves for a demi-human queen. Sellsword: Why don't you just let their kind sort it out amongst themselves?
Hyetta: How will they pass? Sellsword: Paying a "toll", if you know what I mean.
Sellsword: Speaking of... Sellsword: Maybe you'll get through, if you have the right connections.
The Prophet approaches the Sellsword. Hyetta: M'lord.
The Prophet puts his hands over the Sellsword's, who molds his into a cup. Sellsword: You know the currency in these lands.
The Prophet lets out an outpouring of runes; he is so gifted with grace the runes come out plentifully, like molten lava. Sellsword: Wha- Hey! Stop it! Sellsword: What's wrong with you?! It's coming out like boiling water!
Sellsword: Enough, enough! Are you making fun of me?! Sellsword: Get on your horse-goat thing and follow me.
The Sellsword and the Prophet mount their respective steeds.
They ride off, passing underneath the ruins Kenneth is found in the beginning of the game.
They enter the crossroads between the Third Church of Marika, Stormveil and the Bridge of Sacrifices.
They move southward, coming closer to the Evergaol where Rhys and Blaidd defeated Darriwil.
They enter the pass right before the Bridge of Sacrifices.
The Bridge of Sacrifices, as we have seen in the past. It is manned by Tarnished. Sentry: Halt. This bridge is kept by Lord Edde. Sentry: State your business.
The Sellsword dismounts and approaches the Sentry.
From the Sellsword's hand, a Golden Rune (Golden Rune [10] maybe) falls into the Sentry's.
Sentry cedes the path to the Tarnished. Sentry: You may pass.
The Sellsword and the Prophet cross the Bridge of Sacrifices. Sellsword: And that's how you get through.
At the end of the Bridge of Sacrifices. Sellsword: Let's be clear here: Sellsword: this doesn't mean we're friends. We'll be at the end of the other's sword sometime -
The Prophet has already sped off. Sellsword: ...Feh. Haven't seen a Tarnished with his rare sort of stupid in a long time.
The Prophet races on Torrent through the pass Gareth had earlier went through to get to Castle Morne. He passes by many Tarnished in the uniform of the disbanded Godrick Soldiers, who pay him no mind (I don't think it's terribly illogical to believe that if he's coming from the direction of the bridge he was probably accounted for).
The Prophet exits the path.
The Prophet, right before the giant, broken wall, that had been explained as, in this fan-fiction, the symbol of Godfrey's great triumph against the defenders of Castle Morne, looks around for the captives, hoping he isn't too late.
Voice, offscreen, hoarse: HEEEELP! HELP! The Prophet looks in the direction of Boc's voice.
He sees the captives dragged toward the Demi-Human Forest Ruins, without the Kaiden Sellsword who was previously accompanying them.
Torrent charges toward the Demi-Human Forest Ruins.
The Sellsword springs out of the bushes, the Dismounter readied.
The Sellsword swings at the Prophet, dismounting him from Torrent.
The Prophet, thrown to the floor, picks himself up. His armor has endured the blow, as it had when Radahn struck him.
The Sellsword kicks the Prophet in the head.
The Sellsword tries to remove the helmet from the stunned Prophet.
The helmet removed, the Sellsword picks up the Dismounter to decapitate the Prophet.
The Prophet's palm lightly slaps the side of the Sellsword's face.
The Sellsword swats the Prophet's hand away; however, a burst of flame still comes from the hand, with sparks striking the Sellsword's helm.
The Sellsword jumps away from the Prophet, who picks himself up with his palm stretched out.
The Sellsword squares off with the Prophet.
The Sellsword tries to close the distance, but a stream of fire is emitted from the Prophet's hand.
The Sellsword backs away, respecting the Prophet's space.
Sellsword: ... The Sellsword sheathes the Dismounter. Sellsword: I give up. I already got my pay, anyway.
Sellsword: You go ahead and risk your neck for those savages. The Sellsword walks away, just as his friend, the one who helped the Prophet cross the bridge, catches up.
The Prophet looks to Melina and Hyetta, who are still on Torrent. Melina: You'll go ahead?
The Prophet nods.
Melina: I shall watch you then. The Prophet presses forward.
The Prophet enters the woods of the Weeping Peninsula; tall trees keep away the light of the Erdtree.
The Prophet sees a demi-human, armed, scurrying away. He pursues them.
From the Prophet's blind side, a smoke bomb is thrown. He tries to protect his eyes from the smoke with his cape.
The demi-humans rush at the Prophet, trying to dig their weapons into the crevices of his armor.
The demi-humans dig their knives into the Prophet's ankles.
A particularly big demi-human swings their club at the Prophet, knocking him down.
The demi-humans try to remove the pieces of the Prophet's armor, now that he has fallen prone.
The Prophet extends his palms outward; the fire spills out of his gauntlets, burning and scarring the faces of the demi-humans at his sides.
The demi-humans flee, as the Prophet gathers himself.
The Prophet picks himself up; the earth quakes around him.
The Prophet looks up; a shadow is cast over him.
The Demi-Human Queen looms over the Prophet, with her subjects roaring and taunting the Prophet beside her feet. We have seen a Demi-Human Queen before, encountered on the base of Mt. Gelmir in the adventure with Gareth and Rhys. As a reminder, they're gangly giants with canine features and tattoos (for some reason) covering their body; they wear a ragged cape and a kind of makeshift crown, underneath which is a veil that seems to be made of chainmail.
The Prophet tries to crimp his fingers; some blood spills from his wounds.
The Queen stabs the Prophet with the end of her staff, smashing him into the ground.
The Queen repeatedly smashes the Prophet with her staff, while the other demi-humans sneer.
The Queen notices the Prophet is holding onto the staff, his palms holding the shaft.
She grunts, smashing the Prophet to the ground again.
The staff has become red-hot from contact with the Prophet.
The Queen's hand burns.
Too proud, she continues slamming the Prophet into the ground, creating a crater in the ground.
The Prophet does not relent; the Queen's hand now has scars from the burning staff.
The Queen throws the staff away, her hand bleeding.
With her other hand she bashes the Prophet again and again. At this point, the wonderfully-worked Tree Sentinel armor has become slightly dented but largely intact, though the Prophet is severely wounded.
Fire sparks out of the Prophet's hands, burning the Queen's fist.
The Queen, incensed, barks to her soldiers.
The demi-humans throw Fire Pots at the Prophet.
The hand of the Prophet falls and goes limp.
The Queen gestures for a demi-human to check on the Prophet's condition.
A demi-human approaches the Prophet.
They peer on his face, touching his chest for a heartbeat.
As we all expect, the Prophet's hand springs up, burning the demi-human.
The Prophet tries to pick himself up. The Queen springs for her staff.
In pain, she closes her hand around her staff as the Prophet stumbles toward her.
The Queen, no longer wanting to make physical contact with the Prophet, begins casting Glintstone Sorceries at the Prophet, flinging Glintstone Shards at him. The shard knocks him down.
The Prophet picks himself up.
The Queen is stunned. Her subjects look at her questioningly.
The Queen continues flinging shards at him.
The Prophet picks himself up.
The Queen lowers her stance and bares her fangs right before the Prophet, in a final attempt to intimidate him.
The Prophet thrusts his hands into the Queen's nose, grabbing fistfuls of her nose hair.
He, predictably, sets these on fire.
The Queen thrashes her head, trying to throw the Prophet off. He holds on, pouring more flames.
Her face becomes red as it becomes more hot; the blood vessels in her face inflamed, blood begins to pour, spraying the Prophet's armor with red.
The Queen bashes her face against the ruin walls, trying to shake the Prophet off; she destroys the walls consequently.
The Queen, with her wounded hands, grasps her inflamed head.
Her eyeballs explode with boiling fluid. The Prophet, in the explosion, is thrown off.
The Queen's body collapses, landing with a thud on the ground. The Prophet lies on the gound, severely wounded.
The demi-humans are solemn at the death of their queen, though their relationship was largely based on power.
The demi-humans watch as the Prophet picks himself up.
They prepare another volley at the Prophet.
Instead of Pots, they fling their feces at the Prophet, smearing his bloody armor with excrement.
They run away, willing to fight another day.
The bloodied, feces-smeared Prophet enters the Demi-Human Forest Ruins formal, with the captives still trapped in their nets.
The Prophet and Boc make eye contact. Boc: O-oh, good knight, you answered my pleas. Boc: Thank you.
The Prophet, exhausted, looks around.
He moves toward a knife on the ground.
He uses the knife to free the captured Demi-humans.
The demi-humans, except Boc, flee, as they're not totally comfortable around humans.
Boc bows before the Prophet. Boc: T-thank you. Boc: I wanted to be of some use to the people in the castle... I tried to get this:
Boc holds up his sewing needle. Boc: the only thing that gives me value... Boc: But they wanted me to only mend my kind's garments.
Boc: Even though...my kind aren't known for their sartorial tastes. Boc: I always wanted to be a seamster, l-like my mum.
Boc: Allow me to serve you, as your seamster. Boc: May I accompany you?
The Prophet nods.
Boc: Oh, thank you! Boc: It'll be such a joy to clean your armor and mend your cape.
The Prophet can barely walk and stumbles; Boc supports him, though he himself isn't very strong. Boc: Ah! Watch your step.
Melina has been waiting at the outskirts of the forest, with some concern from the sounds she had heard. Notably, Hyetta is not with her.
She sees the Prophet stumble out of the forest, with Boc by his side.
Melina takes immediate action and moves Torrent forward.
The Prophet is lying on the ground. Boc is removing his armor, while Melina watches. Since the gold of the Prophet's gauntlets are fused into his flesh, Boc cannot remove themselves. Melina: I can commend your courage, though I can't commend your recklessness. Melina: Nevertheless, you are brave.
Boc: M'lord, isn't it fortunate we found this gentle goat-horse? Boc: We can use him to take you 'round. Obviously Boc cannot see Melina.
The Prophet looks up to Melina. Melina: Hyetta has gone off.
Melina points northward, to the path leading to the Ailing Village. Melina: Up there, where a bright flame flared up.
The Prophet tries to pull himself up. Boc: M'lord. Boc tries to ease him. Melina: He's right.
The Prophet gently, but sternly, pushes Boc's hand aside.
He points where Melina pointed. Boc looks.
Boc: You intend to go there?... Boc: ...
Boc: I'm your servant. I will have to trust your judgment. Boc: I will stay here, to clean your armor in yonder pond.
The Prophet, weakly, mounts Torrent. Melina can only watch him, helplessly.
She and the Prophet ride forward.
Again, as they hug the Great Wall preceding Castle Morne, the trees shroud them in shadow.
They pass by an abandoned house. They hear something rustling nearby in the bushes.
They see two yellow flames peeking through the leaves, positioned almost as if they were eyes.
Melina: That's what I saw: Melina: Two flames painted with gold, in the shape of flowers.
The flames retreat, rustling away.
They continue to ascend, entering the dense forest.
The path opens up to the village proper. In the center of several houses is a fire; the villagers are spread throughout the village, their hands over their eyes and their heads are thrown to the sky in despair. It's up to your imagination if they make any sounds; I don't think it's far-fetched for them to be softly moaning or some other utterance of pain.
The Prophet dismounts. Melina: The men of the Lands Between are strange, but what are they doing here, so far from people?
The Prophet taps one on the shoulder.
The man turns to the Prophet, his hands still on his eyes.
The man unveils his eyes, showing them to be the same two yellow flames as had been seen in the bushes.
The Prophet and Melina are surrounded by townspeople, their eyes on fire and melting.
A view of the village's church, the Callu Baptismal Church, where giant rats with burning eyes are pouring out. Following them is an infernal noise, of some giant creature shrieking.
A giant(er) rat with burning eyes emerges from the Church.
The Prophet and the giant rat square off, with the Prophet ignoring his pain and trying to close his hand into a fist.
The Prophet's fist squeezes out blood; blood pours from the melted gold of his fist.
He uses Giantsflame Take Thee, throwing the immense fireball at the Giant Rat.
The immense, all-consuming flames of the rat's eyes.
Arcs of golden fire flies through the air, falling like rain upon the village. They pierce through the Prophet's fireball.
The fire falls on the villagers, setting them on fire and even further in their despair. Melina on Torrent escapes.
The Prophet tries to protect himself with his arms.
The Prophet is covered in the golden flame.
He sees a tangle of gold right before his eyes.
The arc of gold, leading away from the tangle, on a black background.
The thread of gold, faint in the darkness.
The thread of gold, entering a light generated by a flame.
The thread of gold exiting into a great inferno.
The inferno of Leyndell, the Royal Capital, a vision we have seen in past chapters. The Erdtree is set ablaze.
The ash generated from the burning capital and tree swirls in the air and mixes with the ever-escalating flames.
The view moves to the crown of the Erdtree, which is shedding its amber leaves rapidly; leaves and ash flee the Erdtree in a storm.
Marika's crucified body in the crown of the Erdtree, her body shrouded by giant branches and foliage. Her face, of course, is obscured by her hair and the shadows thrown by the tree in the fire.
A dark hand reaches out to Marika in the inferno.
The hand touches Marika's head; at the mere touch, her head rolls off, as if she were a rotting sculpture.
The head falls onto the ground like a clump of mud.
A foot smashes that head, reducing it to earth and removing all recognizable human features on it.
The full page is the owner of that foot and hand looking into the camera; the person's head is a golden flame with a black hole in the center, the hole "staring" at the reader while the flames of the Erdtree's ruin flicker higher and higher. The symbolism of the page is apparent, as clear as the symbolism of one of the game's ending: the black hole has no meaning, and yet from its meaninglessness are the all-consuming and total destructiveness of flame.
The Prophet is lost in the despair of this vision of the future. In the current time, the villagers scream as they burn.
The Prophet's bloody fists, unable to produce any flames whatsoever.
The Prophet tears off his blindfold, the blood from his fists smeared on his face.
Fire erupts from his own eyes.
A laser of flame shoots from the Prophet's eyes, piercing through the giant rat, setting it afire.
The rat collapses, consumed by flames.
The rat, disturbingly, is not reduced to ash; it, instead, simply disappears.
The Prophet is shook by this encounter and revelation. One can see his eyes now, which have a clarity and a sadness to them.
The flames around the Prophet have died; no one is left, having been destroyed permanently by the Flame of Frenzy. As a note, the flames from the rat have permanently scarred and warped the Prophet's flesh, but not to a debilitating extent.
Torrent's hooves.
Melina and the Prophet stare at one another.
Melina: I saw the vision too.
Melina: From the bottom of my soul, I tell thee: Melina: I have no more clarity in my life, than that I must destroy all who foster that flame.
The Prophet has tears in his eyes. He already knew what Melina was going to say.
He ties the blindfold back over his eyes.
Melina looks upon the Prophet sadly as he enters the Callu Baptismal Church.
Hyetta is resting beneath the statue of Marika.
The Prophet kneels over Hyetta. Melina has followed him. Melina, in a repentant tone: Your wounds. Put her on Torrent.
The Prophet shakes his head.
Despite his injures he picks Hyetta up in his arms.
Hyetta wakes up in his arms. Unbeknownst to her, his entire body is in pain. Hyetta, waking up: My...my lord.
Hyetta puts a hand on the Prophet's check. Hyetta: You came to rescue me.
Melina watches in solemnity, foreseeing the impending tragedy.