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// Carving a Path Through Rot 
// Story: Elden Ring: The Deaths of Tirek 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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With the Divine Tower taken care of, and the secret of the lower depths discovered, Tirek and Blaidd set out from the ruins they had teleported over to, finding that the road seemed to be long and that the only thing to look at was all of the Rot that had infested the wilds of Caelid. What Tirek didn't like was that there were plenty of Pests wandering around, the foul bug monsters that had been in the mine he was forcefully teleported to a lifetime ago, as it sure felt that way, though with his friend by his side, and his boosted magic, he had nothing to fear from their foes. Of course he knew that there was no way for them to actually clean up the area that they were moving through, since the Rot ran deep and poisoned everything with it's corrupting nature, but blasting them into oblivion was far better than he could have admitted, since it felt good to just lay into them. He also knew there was an area in the center of the swamp that seemed to house another powerful creature, or at least Tirek assumed so since there happened to be so many of them in this region alone, though Blaidd was fine with the path they carved through the land, as long as they ended up at their destination.

As such he directed them towards the rotted swamp and used his magic to form a path in the air for them to walk on, he really didn't want to walk in the rotted water and get sick with whatever was plaguing the rest of the land, especially after Blaidd mentioned that the red valkyrie-like knights were Cleanrot Knights, dangerous foes for sure.

With his spell they were able to reach the heart of the swamp and found that one of Radahn's generals or commanders was inside it, alone no less, and Tirek activated the Grace before heading inside it, finding that the heavily armored figure raised a lance that doubled as a flag before challenging them. As such they lashed out at the Commander and his soldiers, as he used a power to call forth phantom soldiers to do battle with him and Blaidd, but they were weak, easily broken, and did little to actually harm them, meaning all he had to do was cast a single spell to clear the area. After doing that he refocused on his foe as he and his friend clashed with the Commander, who seemed to try to use the wind against them, but they were ready for any trickery and avoided his attacks as they slashed and blasted at him, just like they had done to all of the other foes that had come before him. It was highly interesting to see how the figure fought, since he liked to use both sides of his weapon for some odd reason, but it didn't stop them from taking his head so Tirek could absorb all of his Runes, which was why he had bothered to come here in the first place.

What was interesting were the items that the Commander dropped upon his defeat, as one happened to be the lance he had carried into battle while the other was an oddity, a golden or brass needle that reminded Tirek of Malenia, a large one at that, which he stashed away without delay.

From there they returned to the ruins, spent the new Runes Tirek had obtained, before heading down the road once more as they decimated the Pests that were in the way, though they stopped at an area that was close to where Blaidd told him the Cathedral was located. With that in mind Tirek knew that his next step was to find it's Grace and activate it, since he had a few dragon hearts to empower himself with, though before that Blaidd pointed out the foe that was in their way, a sickly white scaled dragon who looked like the Rot was eating away at it. Fortunately there was a Grace nearby and Tirek made sure to activate it before he and Blaidd rushed at the beast, where the dragon roared and did what the others did, flapping it's wings, moving around the arena it had been resting in for some time, and roaring at them before releasing a foul misty breath at them. It was a Rot breath, one designed to infect the dragon's foes and wear whoever was attacking it down, causing Tirek to raise a magical shield around him and Blaidd, with multiple layers for extra protection, mostly to ensure that they weren't eaten at by the foulness that was devouring the rest of Caelid.

The next time the Rot Breath was used Tirek gathered his flames and loosed his own dragon's breath at it, causing the area in between them to be torn apart as their powers came into contact with each other, though at the very least he was able to cancel out his foe's attack. Such a thing allowed Blaidd to get up behind the dragon and drop down on it, slashing through one of the wings to prevent it from flying away again, while at the same time freezing it's inner body a little in an attempt to slow it down a little. From there they tore into the dragon before it could do anything to destroy them, where Tirek found a way to tear into it's chest while Blaidd was distracting it, allowing him to carve his way to the dragon's heart and tear it out, causing the beast to drop dead after a few moments of struggling. He huffed for a moment as the dragon burst into dust and his body absorbed the Runes that came from it, though without stopping he headed to the south once more, as he was so close to the Cathedral and he wasn't about to leave without activating it's Grace.

Sure enough he found the area that he had been looking for, where he tracked down the Grace and activated it, giving his friend an area to sit down in while Tirek transformed the Runes into strength, though once that was done he walked over to the altar and checked it out for a few seconds. After that he informed Blaidd that he would be right back and teleported over to the other dragon ruin, the first one he found on the small island, and consumed some of the hearts there, since it had a few powers for him to gain after doing such a thing. Once a few more dragon powers were in his possession, or at least those that this area could impart upon him, Tirek returned to the Cathedral and used his remaining dragon hearts to obtain a few more powers from the altar, before he paused as he greedily devoured the last one. A pulse ran through his body for a few seconds, where he could feel something in him changing as his eyes became sharper than before, while he felt his fingers sharpen a little, his legs pulsed while nothing serious happened, and he felt his teeth sharpen a little as well, but it was nothing too serious.

Once he was done with the Cathedral, and made sure there were no significant changes he had to be worried about, Tirek and Blaidd continued on their way to the east as they followed the main road, since it had to bring them to the area that held the festival for the Shardbearer they were after. The path in question had more rotted creatures standing in their way, monstrous dogs who seemed to enjoy tearing apart anything they could get their claws on, massive ravens that swooped down without warning to kill whatever they wanted, and Pests that were wandering around to spread their 'gift' to the rest of the province. The more Tirek saw of Caelid the more he believed that it had to be cleansed in fire, deeply and fully to burn away all of the corruption that had taken root in this place, and even then he wasn't sure that it would be enough to totally deal with the Rot, since Blaidd informed him that it ran deep. The only good thing about the state of Caelid was that the Rot was no longer spreading, meaning Limgrave didn't have to worry about it reaching it's pristine and fertile lands, which would only cause the Rot to rapidly spread with nothing to stop it, like a wildfire, so those left in Limgrave could breathe a sigh of relief and got about their days without too much worry.

As Tirek focused on the mission, however, they passed by a war between the knights and the rotted creatures, though this time the pair ignored what was going on and found a Waygate that actually teleported them into the castle grounds, near a Grace no less, to which Tirek decided to rest before they faced whatever dangers might be waiting for them in the rest of the castle's grounds.