Prologue

Boom-

Murky yellow flames burned away the sky.

The land, and even the oceans, were set ablaze by this madness, sending up thick black smoke.

Piercing screams, sobs, roars... they never ended.

And there was chanting, like a curse.

"May chaos take the world!!!"

"Aaargh-"

Why had it come to this?

Melina, Ranni, Rya, Millicent, Alexander, Blaidd, Roderika, old man Hewg the blacksmith, Boc, Nepheli... everyone... I only wanted to create a world where all of you could live happy lives!

But you still left me, one after another.

Why!?

At the very end, the instant I touched the Elden Ring, pain exploded in my head, and scorching heat consumed my body.

From that unseen abyss, the murky flames of madness that had become part of my power ran wild... no, perhaps they had planned it all, lurking deep within my heart only to seize the fruits of victory at this final moment.

As my consciousness blurred and faded, all I could remember was that strange man on the snowy mountain, covering his eyes. His mouth split open like an abyss, his yellowed teeth reeking of endless bloodshed.

"Ah, at last, at last it has come to pass! Our lord! Our Lord of Frenzied Flame!"

"May chaos take the world!!!"

He spread his arms and cried out to the blazing world.

His deep eye sockets were likewise filled with that mad, murky yellow.

Soon, even the last trace of my consciousness was stripped away by the towering flames.

"May... may chaos take the world! May chaos take the world!"

Amid the terrible flames of madness, the eternal Erdtree crashed to the ground.

The sounds slowly died away.

Prosperity, vitality, decay, chaos... everything turned to ash.

Only from within that burning-hot ring did a horse's faint whinny still struggle to escape.

But a moment later, a foot stamped it deep into the accumulated ash.

I... or rather, the Lord of Frenzied Flame, admired his final masterpiece with satisfaction, then raised his blazing head toward the endless stars, searching for his next prey.

"I found you, Lord of Frenzied Flame."

Suddenly, a voice chilled me to the bone from behind.

The sensation in my chest was just as chilling-a sharp dagger had pierced straight through my body. Black-and-red flames burned there, yet they absorbed every bit of energy, leaving this hollow shell with nothing to feel but endless, bitter cold.

The Rune of Death-destined death. These were flames that could slay even a god.

"Without life, how can there be a lord?"

The dagger was pulled free, and the Lord of Frenzied Flame fell backward to the ground.

"Me..."

The familiar figure had lost all her gentleness, her lone eye filled with an icy, spectral glow.

She slowly crouched down, her lips moving as she whispered, a trace of loneliness and sorrow threading through her hateful voice. "You are truly unforgivable, Lord of Frenzied Flame!"

"This destined death is my final gift to you."

The dagger descended again.

Across the entire world of ash, the last flicker of red-and-yellow flame of madness went out.

In the silence, Melina sank wearily to her knees and found the scorched, mottled ring beneath the Lord of Frenzied Flame's foot.

Tears filled her eyes, and at the very end, they fell onto the ash-covered earth.

"...I'm sorry," she apologized. "Mother, it was my failure to fulfill my purpose that let things come to this. If... if I could have stopped him sooner, perhaps..."

But everything was already well and truly over.

Having fulfilled her final purpose of slaying the lord, Melina began to fade.

A storm rose from the ends of the world. The entire planet, burned away by the Frenzied Flame, would become a speck of dust in the cosmos and vanish.

Yet within that ashen storm, in the last scattered light of grace from the utterly ruined Elden Ring, wings gently fluttered, taking the form of a golden butterfly that flew toward the far shore...