Marika settled the unconscious knight down on a spare roll they had brought and set her near the balcony wall. She had fainted shortly after her rotted flesh had healed. The gilded queen planned to return for her, but she knew this meant a far more dire threat must be lurking in these depths. "Whatever it is must be especially powerful." She muttered as she hefted her pack back on.
Melina breathed lightly as she stood herself. "It?" She turned to her mother curiously.
"Something infected her just before we arrived." She looked angry. "One of its own Knights at that." She tightened the loop over her shoulder as her hand tightly clenched onto the hammer.
Melina gently placed her hand over her mother's wrist to try and comfort her, but she simply walked forward. "We have to get loving. They couldn't have gotten too far yet."
Melina could only nod, clutching the leather strap of her own satchel as she walked behind her mother and traversed beyond the final balcony.
Turning down a long spiral stairwell nuilt into the side of the tree that seemingly descended for hours, they came out onto what could only be called a bloody palace.
Golden arches overgrown with vines and towering limestone walls covered in splattered red and white blood. Great spires shattered into pieces as the broken remains of a tree sentinel's staff lay buried behind it in a shattered wall with no sign of its original owner. Melina gave a quiet gulp at such force.
"What... could do this..." The candle girl muttered sheepishly as their walk came upon a large causeway leading to a towering gateway. It had once had battlements and ballistas with men aplenty. All that remained now were smears of human and albeurnic blood, shattered wood, and metal fragments burried in the remains of shredded cloth hauberks that outlined their owners against the cracked brickwork. The gate itself looked like something had walked through and just shattered it through the force of its steps alone.
"A God." Marika muttered through gritted teeth. Melina could feel her heart rate escalating.
"A... a God..." She felt her hand shake idly in terror. Even as she fought it back, her fingers could not help but tremble. She had faced many things, but a true God...
"We must make haste." Marika muttered before taking off on a sprint down the long torchlit halls. The braziers were rusted over, and their light was a strange, almost too pure golden color that made the room seem almost sterile. The roots of the tree that once lined these halls were all as broken as the central gateway.
Melina did her best to keep pace, but her mother's fury had her running like a woman possessed. Every step cracked the bricks beneath their feet until they finally emerged down the confusing pathways to the base of the tree. Patches of dirt and roots littered with the corpses of odd and gangly insect men were their first greeting, soon followed by a blinding golden light from above.
There was a strange church at the center of the trunk that had a brilliant light shining far above it and casting an overly radiant glow over everything. Everything felt so... golded beneath it.
Marika raised her hand as the seal pulses between her fingertips. "Wait!" Melina shouted as she grabbed her mother's wrist. Marika stilled her incantation, casting a searing glance at her daughter. "What if it's a trap?" The question cooled the scowl that had been forming along Marika's features. Melina really didn't like seeing the creases of rage across her mother's face.
"I... Hadn't thought about that." She muttered lightly as she lowered her hand. The anger was fading slowly from her face and rehardening into resolve, which was a welcome sight. "I bet they are in the church. Let-" A meteor crashed down on top of the gilded queen. A glowing stone of burning hot space rock crashed down, and though it did not erupt, Marika's whole strength was levvied into holding the constabtly racing stone as she stood like Atlas beneath the earth. Unbroken, but unmoving.
"You two certainly know how to interrupt... I had hoped she would stall you longer, but either way, my beloved shall discard you with ease." A voice as beautiful as it was cocky rung from the church as Melina's head snapped towards it. Emerging slowly as the church walls broke and crumbled against his armor was Radahn.
"Impossible..." Melina muttered as she stepped back, trying to piece together how to help her mother while understanding what exactly she was seeing.
Radahn was alive, yet... wrong. His face was too dark, and it was covered in marks where horns had been shorn off. He was too small, and his armor fit poorly. He also looked like he was constantly in pain.
"Finish them off, my beloved. They are simply obstacles to our beautiful new world. We shall remake them better, just as I remade you." The voice sent shivers down Melina's spine. She swore she recognized it, but she couldn't place where.
The candle shook quietly. There was no way to get her mother out before Radahn or whatever that was got to her. She either ran and abandoned her mother or fought. That was General Radahn, though. She had no idea if she could even scratch the paint of his armor, let alone slay him.
"I..." She stepped forward without thinking. She couldn't run. She wouldn't even if she could. Her hand grabbed the book, and her other grabbed the curved dagger. She drew both as she stepped forward, and for a moment, Marika could see her daughter's aura turn pure red through the queen's fighting pain.
"I won't let you get away with that!"