Elden Ring: The Deaths of Tirek

by Blackdrag-rose

Castle Morne

After resting at the Grace, and making sure the Runes were put away to empower himself once more, Tirek and Blaidd headed for the hole in the large wall that rested nearby, where he found that there was a large area in front of them and a large castle off in the distance. From what he could tell there didn't seem to be anything to stop them from riding up to the structure that was his current main target, as there were no enemies and no real obstacles, like a gap in the road, meaning it was a straight shot to Castle Morne and it's powerful creature. Blaidd looked at the area as well, surveying everything he had taken some time to look at, before nodding his head as well, confirming that there didn't seem to be anything for them to worry about, but that didn't stop him from gripping the handle of his blade. It showed him that, despite the fact that there was nothing in the immediate area, he knew that an open area like this was asking for trouble and he was keeping his guard up, causing Tirek to do the same as he moved forward as carefully as he could.

As they started to move forward, however, Tirek found one of the map pillars and walked over to it, where he claimed the next part of the map, but before he could check anything out he heard a sound to the south and turned his head, only to find that a massive arrow pierced him and nailed him to the ground, forcing him to reappear at the Grace.

"So that's what happens when a Tarnished dies: they turned into a bit of golden mist and gather at the last Grace that was used to mark their progress." Blaidd said, speaking as Tirek walked up to where he was located, which was now behind a rock wall as he surveyed the rest of the area that was to the south, causing him to frown as he spotted what had killed Tirek this time around, "As I expected, there's a Golem defending Castle Morne from intruders... how they got one, I have no idea, but one is better than two or three. They're pretty slow moving, save for when they're attacking, so if we split up we should be able to take it from two sides, before it can attack either of us with it's arrows... fortunately they only have one weapon, otherwise we'd be in real danger."

Tirek understood what his companion was saying, in fact he had considered the same plan when he heard what the stone creature was capable of, though in the next moment both of them rushed out, him heading to the right while Blaidd did the same on the left. Sure enough he found that the Golem was a giant, standing far larger than anything he had seen so far, it carried a large bow that was it's main weapon, and it had a quiver of large arrows that seemed to refill when one of them was used, meaning it would fire indefinitely until either it fell or it's foes did. Blaidd was correct, the Golem could only focus on one foe at a time and had to determine who was more important, allowing both of them to use the various ruins on either side of the path to get closer and closer to it, meaning one could draw attention and hide so the other one could get closer. In the end they were able to get up close to where the Golem was standing, where Blaidd slashed at it's legs as Tirek blasted it's chest with his magic, allowing the pair to bring down their foe and open the way into the castle, as there was more work to be done.

What was interesting was that there was only a room to the right of the opening and a lift in front of them, though Tirek did activate a new Grace before he joined Blaidd on the platform and let it take them up to the uppermost level, which did take a few moments for them to reach their destination.

In the following moment they discovered that there were a large number of Misbegotten worshiping a fire, fueled by a pile of corpses that had to be every person they had slain since rebelling against the owners of this castle, but for right now it seemed like none of them had noticed that they had company. Tirek originally believed that they had two options, but the moment he spotted some hollowed dogs off to their left he realized that they had only one, which was to fight their way through the rest of the castle, hopefully find another Grace, and track down their targets. Blaidd agreed with him as he rushed out into the open area and swung at some of the Misbegotten, slicing through them with ease as Tirek blasted his foes, before they had a chance to react to what was going on. Their current job was to take down as many foes as both of them possibly could, so they wouldn't be overwhelmed in the near future, and while that happened Tirek found that some of the Misbegotten had wings and used bows, instead of axes and swords like their ground counterparts.

Tirek switched things up by focusing on the flying Misbegotten, leaving the ground ones for Blaidd to take out, including the hollowed dogs that were nearby, before discovering a Pumpkin Head that was guarding the path forward, to what had to be a way to the upper ramparts. As such he and Blaidd waited until the rest of their enemies were taken care of before worrying about the larger fighter, combining their abilities to bring it down without wasting too much time, though since it wasn't a Misbegotten Tirek had to wonder why it hadn't fought to defend it's lord's land. Once it was brought down Tirek found a ladder heading up to the upper ramparts and started to climb it without delay, all while Blaidd stabbed the wall with his sword and, somehow, used the force of him slashing downwards to propel himself up to the ramparts, likely due to the frost enchantment being used. Tirek caught up with him without wasting too much time and the two of them found that some of the Soldiers were still alive, in fact there was a path leading to one of the northern towers, so they decided to explore a little as they wiped out more and more of the Misbegotten.

Along the way they discovered a man who wasn't fighting, wasn't issuing commands, and just seemed defeated, where Tirek assumed he was the commander and dropped the letter in front of him, though all he got was mutters about what the figure called a 'legendary' weapon and the beast that had taken it.

Such a thing caused him to smirk for a moment as he and Blaidd followed the path in front of them and found a Grace on the other side of the walkway he had selected, where he jumped over the ledge and activated it, before finding that the way forward involved jumping on the roofs of the backside of the castle. It was a downwards descent, meaning they had to carefully clear out an area before moving forward, since the Misbegotten had better skills than most warriors did, but in the process he discovered new enemies, rats and what appeared to be slime creatures. While the rats went down with an incredible level of ease, in fact he just needed to slash at them once to take them down, the Slimes were tougher to take down, as they took a lot of pain from their weapons, but the frost and bleed effects seemed to deal a lot more damage in the long run. Once the level was cleared of enemies the pair jumped down and repeated the movements with the rest of their foes, as such a thing would allow them to move further and further down, even though there was an area that they had to use some beams to climb down.

After a while Tirek came to a stop as he found two things, the first being another Grace and the second being an arch that had golden mist forming a door below it, the sign of a powerful creature resting nearby, so he made sure to activate and rest at the Grace, along with spending his Runes on himself.

"Give me a few moments, I need to recover." Blaidd said, as they had fought nonstop since they entered the castle, due to the fact that they didn't actually rest at the second Grace spot, where Tirek nodded as he wrapped up what he was doing, though Blaidd needed to have a mental conversation with his mistress, who wanted an update on his mission, which would be bad timing for Tirek if he had to leave.

Tirek suspected that Blaidd's master was speaking to him about what he was up to, especially since he hadn't said a word about Darriwil's death to Ranni, but he made it seem like he was more interested in his own endeavors, before finding that Blaidd informed him that he was sticking around for a time, his master had no missions for him. It seemed odd that Ranni would allow such a thing, given that Blaidd seemed to be one of her most important followers, if he was right about her being the one that the wolfen warrior was talking about, but Tirek told him he was glad to have him along for the ride, for however long that was. With that cleared up Tirek informed his companion that they could either fight two more of the Misbegotten and get to the powerful foe or just ignore them, jump down onto the lower level, and clash with the creature that was on the other side of the door, where he found that Blaidd was more interested in the former. As such the two of them quickly crossed the bridge and jumped down into the shallow water below them, as there was some sandy areas to land in, before ignoring all of the floating jellyfish as they rushed over to the golden mist and passed through it.

What Tirek discovered was a small island of sorts, with what appeared to be graves in certain places, before spotting what appeared to be a Misbegotten with flowing red hair, built differently than the rest of it's kind, and was carrying what had to be a greatsword made out of multiple swords.

Sure enough this one, a Leonine according to Blaidd, was faster than the rest of it's kind and seemed like it wanted to put both of them down, especially since it could lift the greatsword with ease, but, as he expected, Blaidd rushed forward and clashed with the Leonine. Tirek knew what he was doing, he was presenting him with openings to use his spells, which was exactly what he did as he carefully moved around the arena and launched some of his spells at their foe, where each one struck the Leonine with ease. Once more Blaidd showed him just why he was glad to have him around as an ally, due to the fact that he was able to rapidly swing his own greatsword like it was a twig or stick, using the frost enchantment while doing so, something that slowed the Leonine down as time went by. Of course it tried to come at Tirek and take his head off, but he was able to use his own speed to get out of the way and leave an opening for Blaidd to attack the creature, who was unable to really do much against the pair, allowing them to bring it down within no time.

As it fell to the ground Tirek soaked up it's Runes while watching as it disappeared, though his next action was to collect the greatsword the Leonine had been carrying, where he found that he was capable of lifting it, likely another side effect of coming to this world. With that done they returned to the second Grace and helped each other over the wall, because he figured there might be a reward for saving the legendary weapon, even though it did mean they had to slaughter the revived Misbegotten and the insane Soldiers again. The father, however, didn't seem in the mood to give a reward and just thanked them for making sure it wasn't in the hands of the Leonine anymore, causing Tirek to shake his head as he turned to leave, before using the map to warp himself and Blaidd back to the Grace near the blind girl. In the following moment the pair discovered that she had been slain while they were gone, meaning that her father's foes must have caught up with her and ended her life, causing him to return to the Grace as he ignored the end of this quest.

He had gotten more power, that was all that mattered in the grand scheme of things, and his ally was sticking around for a while longer, how much Tirek had no idea, but he was grateful to have Blaidd along for the ride as he wondered what else they might get into in the near future.