The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 48

It has truly been a long time since she has felt the feeling of pain. But now, she has bleed for the first time. Small spikes were launched straight towards her but, they were all blocked by Selph and Falkor who appeared out of nowhere.

Falkor went straight ahead to fight Ego with his giant sword while Selph approached her. She looks concerned by the fact that the keeper was hurt.

"Here, eat this.", she said as she shove a cartwheel of cheese into her hands.

"Huh?", the keeper could reply with an unintelligent response. She feared this to be a situation beyond her cognitive reaction. It was just too bizarre. The pain did not make it better.

"Just eat it.", said Selph as she looked at the cartwheel of cheese.

"Alduin once told us a tale of a man who would hunt dragons using the tongue of the dragons themselves. According to him, he ate 73 cartwheels of cheese, 21 pounds of raw meat and drank 47 barrels of ale while fighting to recover himself."

"What?" was the only thing she could say again. How does one even eat 73 cartwheels of cheese nevermind while fighting and eating even more. It was a truly bizarre experience, but she nonetheless obliged and tried to eat it while Selph went off to help Falkor.

Falkor was fighting brilliantly with his swords and shields. No matter what Ego did, he could dodge it and row around him. According to what she is currently seeing, the way Falkor kept rolling around resembled a ball.

With Selph however, it was a completely different story. Selph just made a ball of pure energy and fire it into to crust of the planet. Ego tried to stop her but was still occupied with Falkor. Falkor kept rolling until he gets to his backside. Then he stabs him with a sword.

If they weren't powerful beings, it looked like two children playing around with Ego trying his best to hit Falkor while he kept rolling around.

Selph on the other hand was still shooting beams of energy straight into the crust of the planet itself. Her eyes were starting to glow with energy and the ground all around her is starting to crack.

As for her, she was trying to control Ego. It was slowly working. That is why Ego was occupied with Falkor and couldn't attack Selph even though she was technically right on him.

She also finished eating the cartwheel of cheese. It did absolutely nothing although she did feel a little better. She has also finished healing herself. This time she call upon fire in a way it resembles a meteor shower.

Ego was snow confined to his humanoid form since she managed to control him to some extent. She grabbed the burial blade and joined the fight. She had been thinking about this move since she faced against a celestial.

It was in a way similar to the first flames that weakened the everlasting ones. It burns the soul itself. Immortal burn better than mortal souls meaning that it was more lethal to immortal existences.

She named the move "God hunter" due to it theoretically being able to hunt down the gods themselves. It also takes their energy and transfer them to her. The blade of the scythe was now on fire. It resembles a tornado with the tip being razor sharp.

Of course, despite being entangled by Falkor, a few giant boulders still managed to come her way. It did nothing. She simple swung around her flaming blade and they were destroyed before they even managed to touch it.

And then in an instant, her blade was aiming for Ego's neck. How did this happen? Did she teleport? If she did, Ego would easily sense her and manage to react. After all, this is his domain. The same goes for a high-speed movement.

What actually happened was that her flames were so hot they managed to burn space itself to reduce the space between her blade and her target. She managed to get a good hit perfect shot on his neck.

It was a tad bit creepy to see a headless body clawing at its own neck. He was trying to reform but all the energy he is using to reform is actually going towards her. His soul itself was burning as fuel for the first flame.

He was also starting to collapse. Selph was slowly getting towards the core of the living planet. Ego could no longer fight and focused all his attention on trying to heal but it was useless.

Selph has finally gotten to his core and from there onwards, he slowly started to collapse. His body, the planet burned by the flames with his soul used as the fuel. The living planet was no more and has ceased to exist.

She collected his soul as fuel for the first flame to burn. She could now live on for almost as long as the everlasting ones. Her powers have also grown further. Just then, she felt chills. Shivers unlike anything she has ever felt before.

Despite the planet collapsing, she managed to save the ground on which her foot stands. She could something like a chanting or a song. The song of the mad old ones. She could barely understand it. It was as if the song was written by a dimension. By the creator of Lordran itself.

When once, long ago
I was worn down and abused
The strongest took the spoils
And then we fell at their shoes
But now they are gone
And my sanity's kept by my chains
So I bear them both in faith and hate
For family and all that remains

Fight, to ignite
Not for gods nor the coming of night
If I'm the last of the men to fall
Then this warrior's growing in might
For fear and for love
And survival when push comes to shove
The red hood is coming to take you home
The bearer of soul and of light

Old kings will fade
When the last of the light's fading too
The castles long have fallen
And the paintings faded blue
So here now you stand
We are human yet both something new
The last prize has been taken
Now the red hood faces you

Here in the ashes
Balanced and whole
I endlessly hunger
For power of soul
At the end of all the ages
In the last of my crusades
You're the red hood's last contender
And the first one unafraid
I'm regretful to have hurt you
But this world's blood must be spilled
I'll return home as a monster
From the bad dream that I've killed

She did not know what the message of this song was but it was maddening to her. It was as if they were the screams of hell itself. Imagine being a very strong being during the ages of Gwyn himself only to see powerful beings extinguished one after another. One would surely go mad from such endeavor.

There was another reason, she felt that this song was a terrible curse. Because in front of her was a plain red hood and it was starting to get tempting to put it on.

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The lines above are the lyrics of 'Red Hood' sang by 'Aviators'.

I wanted to give more focus on the red hood and slave knight Gael.

I also attempted to give some more context and story to the lyrics.

Tell me what you think of it.