Vyke was torn to shreds.
Few could face Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms ×36 without being torn to shreds.
Of course, this was only a wisp of the lingering soul Vyke had left behind. Vyke himself was still alive.
Watching the spot where the Red Phantom gradually faded, a trace of loneliness crossed Tarnished's eyes. He murmured, "I understand you. I too... once walked this road."
He picked up the Broken Spear and stowed it away with his Broken Sword.
One more won't make much difference. I'm going to the Roundtable Hold to have the Greatsword reforged anyway. Since we're both lost souls wandering the world, I might as well have your Broken Spear reforged too.
Tarnished gathered himself and stepped into the Church of Repose.
Like the other churches in the Lands Between, this one was in ruins. The statue of Goddess Marika was tangled in thorns and covered in weeds. Beneath her, a pretty-faced Finger Maiden sat quietly in a chair, her head tilted as though she were merely asleep.
She was Vyke's maiden, and she was already dead.
Tarnished sighed softly. The story was not complicated.
Vyke was also an Elden Lord Candidate. He had come infinitely close to the throne of the Elden Lord, only to be beguiled by a follower of the Frenzied Flame in the Mountaintops of the Giants.
That person told him that to gain an audience with the Elden Ring, he would have to sacrifice his maiden, using the Flame Seed she brought to burn away the "Thorns of Rejection" outside the Erdtree. But over their long journey, Vyke and his maiden had already formed a deep bond. He would never kill her. Moved by that devotion, the person kindly revealed a secret:
"In the deepest reaches of the Sewers beneath Leyndell, there is