The air was thick with the remnants of battle that didn't even make the Shadow Monarch break a sweat..
Up ahead... Farum Azula, the crumbling city suspended in time, groaned like an ancient beast clinging to life. Black clouds churned overhead, broken by the occasional streak of golden lightning. Fragments of shattered stone hovered weightlessly, their edges eroded by winds that had howled for an eternity.
Jin-Woo stood atop a jagged precipice, gazing down at Maliketh's fallen form. Or rather, what had once been Maliketh. His body had melted into the abyssal darkness of Jin-Woo's dominion, his essence twisted into a new existence... a Shadow.
A deep, guttural hum still lingered in the air, the echoes of his command:
"Arise."
The power of Destined Death no longer belonged to a beast enslaved to duty. It was now bound to Jin-Woo's will.
Beru crouched beside his liege, mandibles clicking in satisfaction as he observed the decayed ruins surrounding them. His glowing insectoid eyes flicked over the disjointed spires, the ruins hanging in the void like frozen memories of a world long past.
"My liege," Beru chittered, tilting his head. "This place reeks of forgotten sorrow."
Jin-Woo hummed in agreement. There was something unsettling about this place.. not in a way that frightened him, but in a way that spoke of history, of ancient grief woven into the very stones beneath his feet.
This was not just a battlefield. It was a tomb.
A city cast adrift from the flow of time, forever decaying, forever crumbling, yet never fully gone.
Jin-Woo stepped forward. With every step, the earth beneath his feet felt fragile, like it would shatter if he so much as willed it. He glanced to the side, where Maliketh's golden sword still lay, its flames long extinguished. Even in defeat, traces of its power lingered.. thin wisps of golden energy flickered like dying embers.
A weapon forged to end all things. Destined Death, the very concept of mortality, contained within a blade.
And yet, it had failed against him....
Jin-Woo reached out, his fingers hovering just above the hilt. The moment he did, an unseen force rippled through the air. A whisper.. no, a wail drifted through the ruins.
You should not be here.
Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed.
Beru tensed, his claws twitching as he scanned the surroundings. The air itself seemed to rebel against them, like the city was rejecting their presence.
From the corners of the ruins, shadows flickered. Not his. These were different.. faint remnants of something long gone, spirits of warriors who had fought and died here countless ages ago.
Jin-Woo turned his gaze toward them, unimpressed.
Ghosts. Echoes of an era that had already ended.
He tightened his grip. His era was just beginning.
Without hesitation, he seized Maliketh's blade. The moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt, a surge of force erupted outward. The very foundation of Farum Azula trembled.
The whispers rose into an agonized chorus.
You defy the order. You trespass upon the dying breath of a god.
Jin-Woo exhaled through his nose. Annoyance flickered across his expression.
How many times had he heard this before?
Gods. Rulers. Entities that believed themselves eternal. All of them clung to the idea that their power was absolute.. that their reigns were unshakable.
But they all bled.
And when they bled, they fell...
Jin-Woo tightened his grip, and the golden blade cracked in his grasp. Destined Death belonged to no one but him now.
Beru let out a clicking chuckle. "Foolish whispers. This place is but dust and memory. Nothing remains of their power."
The spirits wailed one last time.. then faded, swallowed by the relentless decay of Farum Azula.
Jin-Woo turned, casting one last glance at the ruins before him.
This place had once held power. It had once been a domain of gods.
Now, it was nothing more than another forgotten battlefield.
He had no use for the past.
Only the future.
Only the conquest ahead.
His next steps would take him beyond this place.. toward the heart of the Lands Between. Toward the gods that still ruled. Toward the final test of his power.
Farum Azula would remain here, trapped in its endless decay. A city that had outlived its purpose.
Jin-Woo?
He had only just begun.
*****
The howling winds of Farum Azula faded behind them.
Jin-Woo strode through the remnants of the crumbling city, his black coat billowing with each step. The unsettling golden glow that had once blanketed the floating ruins was now fractured, flickering in places where Maliketh's authority had once held dominion. Now, that power was his.
Destined Death slumbered within his grasp, waiting to be unleashed.
Behind him, Beru followed with an eager, almost giddy energy. His mandibles clicked in anticipation as his insectoid claws trailed along the ruins, leaving deep gashes in the aged stone.
"My liege," Beru spoke, his voice laced with reverence. "Shall we move to claim another? Or perhaps, should I carve a path to announce your arrival?"
Jin-Woo didn't answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed ahead, where the fragmented steps of Farum Azula led to a towering archway. Beyond it, a distorted, swirling void loomed.. the threshold to the Leyndell Royal Capital.
The heart of the Erdtree.
The throne of gods.
A storm brewed in the distance, golden lightning writhing within the clouds. The scent of burned ozone and something ancient.. something divine clung to the air. Even from here, he could feel it. The weight of an empire's final bastion.
Leyndell, the city of gods and kings.
The final defense of the Greater Will.
Jin-Woo flexed his fingers. He had seen gods fall before. He had broken monarchs and ripped the thrones from beneath their feet.
This would be no different.
Beru's excitement grew the longer his liege remained silent. "Perhaps we should make them tremble first," he suggested. "Strike fear into their bones before we descend upon their gates."
Jin-Woo smirked.
"They already fear me.."
Beru's mandibles curled upward in something akin to a grin.
Jin-Woo stepped forward.
The moment his boot crossed the threshold, the very air twisted.
A pulse of golden energy rippled through the ruins, sending a deep, resonating hum through the crumbling city. For a brief moment, everything froze.. the wind, the drifting debris, even the very fabric of the world seemed to hesitate.
Then, the void at the end of the path shimmered.
A golden mist, thick with divine presence, coiled through the gateway, twisting into a humanoid shape. The form solidified, revealing a towering knight clad in radiant armor, its face obscured beneath an imposing helm. A spear wreathed in crackling golden energy rested in its grip.
Jin-Woo met its gaze without hesitation.
A guardian. Another servant of the Greater Will.
The knight's hollow voice rang out, deep and distant, like an echo from the past.
"The path to the throne is barred to you, Shadow."
Jin-Woo raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
The knight leveled its spear at him, golden tendrils of power curling around its form.
"Return to the abyss from whence you came."
Beru let out a sharp, chittering laugh. "Oh, this one has spirit! Shall I handle it, my liege?"
Jin-Woo's smirk widened. "No need."
His aura flared.
The very consuming darkness beneath him twisted, writhing like living things. The city trembled, and the golden guardian took a single step back.. a reaction so slight, yet so telling.
It knew.
It knew what he was.
The earth cracked beneath his feet as he launched forward.
A single moment. A single breath.
Then...
Crack!.... Boom!!!
A thunderclap.
The battlefield exploded into chaos as their blades met.
The path to the gods was no longer barred.
It was his for the taking!!