Once the Mimic Tear was summoned, it charged forward fearlessly and tangled with Fortissax head-on.
However, it didn't take long before it fell into a disadvantage.
Although the power of death had corroded Fortissax, it had also greatly strengthened her. The lightning surging across her body was even more violent than that of her sister.
Watching the crackling thunder enveloping her, Arthur immediately judged that close combat wasn't a viable option.
He pulled back without hesitation and switched to long-range spellcasting, hoping the Mimic Tear could hold her attention for as long as possible.
That thought had barely formed when Fortissax suddenly lifted her head and unleashed a blast of dragonfire straight at the Mimic Tear.
Unlike Arthur, who was already immune to dragon breath, the Mimic Tear had no such resistance. The frontal blast instantly reduced it to critical condition.
The Mimic Tear rolled desperately, barely escaping the range of the breath.
Then Fortissax slammed her foreclaw into the ground.
Crimson lightning erupted from beneath her claw, spreading outward in all directions and rapidly covering the land within a hundred-meter radius. Arthur himself was caught within the lightning's reach.
Fortunately, Arthur reacted instantly, raising defensive magic to block the lightning strike.
When the crimson glow faded, the Mimic Tear was gone.
Arthur sighed helplessly. He had no choice but to draw his blade and enter the fight personally.
Kiting from range had lost all meaning. With an ancient dragon's speed, Fortissax could reach him before he ever created distance.
And with the open terrain here, there was no way to exploit blind spots or terrain tricks. The only option left was to take advantage of her massive size and fight beneath her.
The problem was—this was extremely unpleasant.
Sensing Arthur's intentions, Fortissax continuously rained lightning down upon him.
The crimson lightning was manageable. Arthur had long since become immune by repeatedly enduring Ifrit's red lightning. Even if it broke through his defenses, it only left him with a tingling numbness.
But the lightning imbued with death was another matter entirely.
Each strike drained warmth from his body, spreading a bone-chilling cold, while simultaneously flooding his mind with negative emotions—despair, apathy, and hopelessness.
Arthur finally understood what Harry must have felt when facing Dementors—except this was a far stronger version.
Thankfully, Arthur was already immune to instant-death effects. Otherwise, he would've lost his life right here.
On Fortissax's side, she was growing increasingly anxious as the fight dragged on.
Without her suppression, the power of death continued to erode Godwyn, pushing him ever closer to complete death.
Determined to end the battle quickly and return to Godwyn's body, Fortissax retreated several steps and began gathering power.
She raised both foreclaws.
Massive torrents of lightning coiled around them, forming two enormous spears. The weapons were composed of red, gold, and black lightning, radiating a terrifying pressure.
Seeing this, Arthur pulled out his yew wand and activated the Bloodhound Step skill embedded within it, closing the distance in an instant.
He wasn't stupid—there was no way he was going to stand still and let Fortissax finish charging her ultimate move.
In just a few flashes, Arthur reached Fortissax's feet. He leapt upward, landed atop her head, and poured magic into the Prince of Death's Staff in his other hand.
A blazing Comet Azur pierced straight through her skull.
The lightning coursing over Fortissax's body froze mid-motion as the massive dragon slowly collapsed.
But Arthur had been just a fraction too late.
The lightning spears in Fortissax's claws had already fully formed. As she fell, both spears smashed into the ground, detonating with catastrophic force.
The resulting shockwave sent Arthur flying far into the distance.
He stabilized himself midair and landed heavily on the ground, watching the raging lightning tear through the terrain until it finally began to dissipate.
Once the three-colored lightning faded away, Arthur rushed toward Fortissax's fallen body without hesitation.
He needed to store her in the system space before she drew her final breath—otherwise, she would return to the Erdtree, and all this effort would be wasted.
After completing this, Arthur finally let out a breath of relief.
He scanned his surroundings, considering how to exit the Deathbed Dream constructed by Fia.
At that moment, Fia's voice echoed through the air.
"Thank you. Now Godwyn can become a pure First Dead. Our child will soon be conceived, and Those Who Live in Death shall soon welcome their king.
Farewell… my hero."
Before Arthur could reply, Fia sent him away.
His vision went dark.
When sight returned, Arthur found himself back in the real world, beneath the Erdtree's roots in Deeproot Depths.
Fia lay quietly at Godwyn's feet, her life already gone.
Above her hovered a pale, centipede-like ring—formed from two incomplete halves joined together.
The Mending Rune of the Death-Prince.
Arthur stared at the Rune, his emotions complicated.
Fia had placed great hopes in him, wishing he would use it to repair the Elden Ring so Those Who Live in Death could step out of the shadows and exist openly in the Lands Between.
But Arthur couldn't fulfill that wish.
From the beginning, his goal had been to obtain this Rune for the sake of nurturing his own Erdtree.
Agreeing to Fia's request had merely been his way of preserving the fragile dream of a dying girl.
Arthur put away the Mending Rune and then looked up at Godwyn's corpse.
He had come here for two things: the Rune—and Godwyn himself.
A soulless demigod's body, though stripped of most vitality by death, still retained immense power. That power had fused with death itself, giving rise to a unique force belonging solely to Godwyn.
And Arthur possessed a trait gained after fusing with an Erdtree root—he could absorb special powers and make them his own.
Godwyn's deathly power was irresistible.
Arthur placed his hand against Godwyn's mermaid-like tail and activated his ability.
Black currents laced with golden light surged into his palm.
Unlike Fortissax's death lightning, this power felt merely cool—almost gentle.
As the deathly energy flowed into Arthur, Godwyn's massive body began to break apart into countless motes of light, eventually dispersing beneath the Erdtree's roots.
Arthur closed his eyes, sensing the newly awakened power of death within him.
In the Lands Between, death was never just a concept.
It was a force—opposed to life, yet inseparable from it.
Life ended in death, and death could give rise to new life.
During the age of the Golden Order before the Ring shattered, death was sealed away—Destined Death removed from the laws of the world. As a result, demigods and gods could not truly die.
On the Night of the Black Knives, death was stolen from its seal, and Ranni and Godwyn became the first demigods to die.
Godwyn then spread death throughout the Lands Between via the Erdtree's roots.
Death returned to the world—and even gave birth to Those Who Live in Death, beings reborn from death itself.
Clearly, the power of death was far more than mere annihilation.
Arthur even felt that, if he wished, he could turn Fia into one of Those Who Live in Death.
But he didn't.
After all, the Prince of Death she had hoped to revive was already gone. Arthur didn't have the heart to face her again.
Moreover, he wasn't sure whether reborn beings retained their memories. Judging from the mindless undead he'd encountered, the answer was likely no.
There was no meaning in reviving Fia that way.
Arthur gently lifted her body and placed her where Godwyn's corpse had once rested, against the Erdtree's roots.
He had absorbed only Godwyn's inherent deathly power. The death spread throughout the roots, he left untouched.
One reason was uncertainty—he didn't know what consequences reclaiming that power might cause.
Death severed the Lands Between from returning souls to the Erdtree. If Arthur removed that influence, the Erdtree might regain its ability to reclaim all life-force.
Who knew whether the Erdtree might then use that power to repair the Elden Ring itself?
Arthur would never allow that.
The other reason was curiosity.
He wanted to see whether the residual deathly power here—where Godwyn once spread death—might cause Fia to be reborn.
Not as a crude undead, but as a new existence nurtured within death itself.
Perhaps… he might even cultivate a god here someday.
Of course, accumulating enough deathly power would take a very long time.
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