"Hero… there is one more thing I must ask of you," Fia said softly.
"I am about to enter eternal sleep with Godwyn. Please—help me eliminate the power within him that prevents true death."
Arthur nodded. He knew exactly what she was referring to.
That presence was Fortissax, the ancient dragon dwelling within the Prince of Death.
During the war between the ancient dragons and the Royal Capital, Godwyn the Golden had fought Fortissax to a standstill. In the end, enemies became friends—the two formed a deep bond.
After Godwyn's death, Fortissax entered his body, constantly resisting the encroachment of death and preventing Godwyn from truly dying.
Fortissax's existence was precisely what allowed Godwyn to remain in that twisted state—his soul dead, his body alive.
In that form, Godwyn continuously spread the power of death throughout the Lands Between, accumulating enough strength to one day be reborn through death itself.
But Fia's plan was different.
She intended to sleep with Godwyn and give birth to their "child"—the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince.
After that, she would ask Arthur to place this Rune into the shattered Elden Ring. In doing so, the Law of Those Who Live in Death would be revealed openly, while the Prince of Death would be reborn within the Elden Ring itself—awaiting the day a new god might emerge.
In the game, after the Tarnished defeats the Elden Beast, choosing to mend the Elden Ring with the Death-Prince's Rune causes that Rune to appear within Marika's shattered womb—the place where life is conceived.
At the Roundtable Hold, the Finger Reader Enia once said:
"A god is but a vessel for the Elden Ring."
Here, the "god" referred to Marika, and the "image" was the Elden Ring itself.
When the Tarnished places the Death-Prince's Mending Rune into Marika's body, the vessel receives a new image—and the image, in turn, reshapes the vessel.
In concrete terms, Godwyn would be reborn within Marika, returning to life as a god.
Enia had also once interpreted the Two Fingers' words:
"Marika committed a grievous sin, and her punishment is well deserved. Yet even so, she remains a god—a vessel for the Elden Ring. Present Great Runes to that vessel, and you shall become her consort… the Elden Lord."
Arthur wasn't sure whether Marika would still be alive after the Elden Ring was mended. In the game, half her body was shattered—she didn't look long for this world.
If Marika revived after the Ring was repaired, then Arthur would become her third-generation husband—with a complimentary stepson in the form of Godwyn, born of Marika and her first husband.
If Marika did not revive, then Godwyn would be conceived within her remains, born as a new god—and as the "consort" spoken of by the Two Fingers, the Elden Lord's partner.
Thinking it through, Arthur could only mutter internally:
Good grief… if I used the Death-Prince's Rune, I'd either be a rebound husband—or end up in a very questionable relationship with Godwyn.
Thankfully, that was never going to happen.
Arthur was already married to Ranni. Naturally, he was going to pursue the Age of Stars.
Seeing Arthur agree to her request, Fia loosened her embrace.
This time, unlike before, she didn't drain any strength from him. It was simply a warm, gentle hug.
"Thank you," she said. "As the mother of Those Who Live in Death, I thank you on their behalf."
"Now… I must sleep with Godwyn. The rest is entrusted to you. I hope you will become the King of Those Who Live in Death."
With that, she lay down quietly where she was and drifted into slumber.
Arthur reached out and gently touched her.
At once, a force tried to pull him into sleep as well.
Arthur didn't resist.
He knew what this meant.
Fia was drawing him into the Deathbed Dream, the realm where Fortissax—who opposed death on Godwyn's behalf—had also been dragged.
She wanted Arthur to kill the dragon there.
...
As Arthur fell asleep, this place—meant to be undisturbed—welcomed a third visitor.
D's younger brother.
D and his brother shared two bodies but a single soul. They could never be active at the same time—when one acted, the other fell into a stupor.
Now that D was dead, the soul had returned to his brother.
Following Arthur's path from the aqueduct, he arrived here with a clear purpose.
As a devout follower of Golden Order Fundamentalism, his goal was obvious.
He intended to kill Fia—
to stop the birth of a king and god of Those Who Live in Death.
Because in the eyes of the Golden Order, Those Who Live in Death were abominations.
He reached Fia and raised his hands, trying to strangle her.
Arthur had not returned D's armor or weapons to him—so he had only his bare hands.
But the instant he touched Fia—
A swarm of vengeful spirits burst forth from her body and lunged at him.
In a single moment, he was consumed by deathly power and returned to the Erdtree's embrace.
Those spirits were among the few death sorceries Arthur possessed.
He had planted them on Fia during their embrace—specifically to guard against this very scenario.
Arthur hadn't been certain D's brother would pursue them, so he'd left himself an insurance policy.
It turned out his caution was well-founded.
Otherwise, after painstakingly defeating Fortissax, Arthur might have returned only to find Fia dead by unnatural means.
If that had happened, the Death-Prince's Mending Rune would've gone straight down the drain.
...
None of this reached Arthur.
As he sank deeper into sleep, darkness enveloped him.
When light returned, he found himself once again beneath the Erdtree's roots, before the Prince of Death.
Only now—
Fia was gone.
Arthur turned around.
Behind him lay the massive, coiled silhouette of a dragon.
Fortissax.
No—more accurately now, Lichdragon Fortissax.
In helping his dear friend Godwyn resist death, Fortissax himself had long since been corroded by its power.
Black thorns covered his body, and even his scales had been stained pitch-black by death.
Arthur was certain of this because all ancient dragons originally bore gray-white scales.
He'd encountered Fortissax's elder sister, Lansseax, twice on the Altus Plateau—she too had gray-white scales.
It was from her that Arthur truly learned how absurdly fast a fully grown ancient dragon could fly.
The first time he met Lansseax, he hadn't disabled her wings. When she realized Arthur was too strong, she turned and fled—so fast that even at full speed, he couldn't catch her.
The second time they met, the first thing Arthur did was cripple her wings.
Incidentally, he'd learned that Lansseax could often transform into human form, interacting with knights as a priestess of the ancient dragon cult.
That was the first time Arthur realized ancient dragons could shapeshift.
Which raised an interesting question.
If Lansseax could do it…
Did that mean Fortissax could too?
That made Arthur wonder whether Godwyn and Fortissax's relationship had truly been as simple as "former enemies turned friends."
After all, there was no such thing as pure friendship between men and women.
Godwyn very well might have been a dragon-lover.
At that thought, Arthur couldn't help but sigh.
"Seriously… nobody in the Lands Between has a normal fetish."
Seluvis liked playing with puppets.
Mohg, the Lord of Blood, was into men.
There was even a Dung Eater lurking in the Royal Capital's sewers.
As a normal person in the Lands Between, Arthur constantly felt out of place among these lunatics.
His muttering stirred Fortissax from her slumber.
She opened her eyes, scanned her surroundings—and immediately locked onto Arthur standing before Godwyn's body.
She didn't know why she had appeared outside Godwyn's body (this was, after all, Fia's constructed dream), but she could never tolerate anyone approaching Godwyn's corpse.
With a thunderous roar, Fortissax surged with two completely different powers.
One was the crimson lightning of the ancient dragons.
The other was lightning intertwined with gold and black, exuding an ominous deathly mist.
This was power born from Godwyn's essence, fused with death itself—manifested by Fortissax in the form of lightning.
Lightning crackled across her body as she lunged at Arthur, claws flashing.
Arthur dodged to the side.
Taking advantage of the moment before Fortissax charged again, he swiftly pulled out a Spirit Calling Bell and summoned the Mimic Tear.
Even though Arthur himself was now stronger than the Mimic Tear—
If you could jump someone, why fight fair?
He had fully embraced his destiny.
To become—
The strongest spirit-summoning snail in the Lands Between.
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