Having retrieved the relic, the Tarnished returned to the courtyard. Every soldier in Stormveil Castle who had tried to attack him had already been dealt with. Only Godrick remained, deep within the castle.
"I told you... I'd take Stormveil Castle alone... Now you're the only one left, Godrick." Murderous intent radiated from the Tarnished as he strolled through the courtyard as though no one else were there. The soldiers scattered in terror the moment they saw him. Only the dim-witted Trolls still tried to block his path, and he cut them down one by one.
At last... he reached Godrick's domain, where he met Nepheli.
"Ah, you're here... He's just ahead. Godrick, the cruel king who sullies the wind." Fury burned in Nepheli's eyes as she tightened her grip on her Battle Axe.
"Let's see just how far the glorious Godwyn's descendant has fallen."
"Ah... O dragon, fellow descendant, thy strength is beyond question..."
"It shall raise my own power to greater heights." A man with a twisted body and a hint of madness in his voice stroked the long-dead Flying Dragon's remains with a six-fingered hand. While he was lost in his own world, two sets of footsteps sounded behind him.
"Oh..." He turned dismissively, fixing the two Tarnished with a vicious glare from his twisted, ugly, aged face. His cloak of fine black silk began to writhe, then slowly slipped away, revealing a dense mass of arms before the Tarnished and Nepheli. They were hideous and foul beyond measure.
"A mere Tarnished... Yet so full of arrogance." Madness gleamed in his eyes.
"You stand before me and still refuse to kneel!" Two utterly mismatched arms gripped a double-headed axe forged from pure gold and slammed it into the ground.
"I am Godrick, the Golden King!" Godrick's voice dripped with superiority. He paid no heed whatsoever to the two insects before him.
"..." The Tarnished said nothing, merely studying Godrick with an unsettling gaze.
"Troll... Tarnished... One, two, three..." The Tarnished had actually begun counting Godrick's grafted limbs, leaving Nepheli at something of a loss.
"Wretch! Who gave you leave to look directly at me?" Godrick flew into a royal rage, swaying as he raised his great axe to strike.
"Watch out!" Sensing the tremendous weight behind Godrick's blow, Nepheli called out a warning.
"I'll look if I please. What can you do about it, Godrick...?" The Tarnished caught Godrick's enormous axe with one hand, a contemptuous gaze flashing from within his full-face helmet.
"Insolence...!" Godrick pushed harder, but barely managed to crack the stones beneath the Tarnished's feet.
"Ah... The last man who wielded a double-headed axe could cleave mountains and shatter the earth. You..." The Tarnished shook his head.
"Don't deserve to wield this weapon." With that, the Tarnished's right hand took on a dragon's form, and he smashed Godrick's great axe to pieces with a single punch.
"Ah! Impossible! That is a dragon's power... How could a wretch like you possess such strength?" The impact sent Godrick staggering back several steps.
This Godrick... He's so weak... The Tarnished is strong, certainly, but Godrick seems... even less troublesome than a group of Banished Knights, Nepheli thought.
"You seem to place great importance on your status." Ever since arriving, the Tarnished's voice had remained utterly level. Before his imposing presence, Godrick seemed unbearably small.
"I am the Golden King! A great descendant of the golden lineage!! How could I allow a lowly Tarnished like you to challenge a king's majesty?!" Even without his weapon, Godrick refused to see reason. Using the arms on his back, he rolled across the ground like a ball, stirring up gusts of storm wind.
"Die, Tarnished! Become a part of my body!!" Godrick abruptly leaped into the air and brought two massive arms crashing down.
"You seem not to understand what true strength is. Your ancestors..."
"Even without weapons, even without so many limbs, they were still heroes whose names echoed through the ages!" Drawing on nothing beyond the formidable strength of his body, the Tarnished punched Godrick. Godrick bounced about like a ball before finally crashing into and toppling the stone pedestal that held the Flying Dragon's remains.
"Ahhh! Impossible! I am a king! I am a rightful descendant of the golden lineage! Destiny itself has chosen me!!!" Godrick howled at the top of his lungs, his already twisted old face contorting even further.
Where does this man get his confidence...? The Tarnished is beating him like an elder disciplining a child... Come to think of it, there doesn't seem to be any room for me to do anything here, Nepheli thought, feeling rather awkward.
"Godrick... You've disappointed your ancestors terribly. And you've disappointed me." The Tarnished walked up to Godrick and removed his helmet, looking upon his old friend's descendant with eyes that, though faded, still shone keenly.
"Wretch! Who gave you leave to look directly at me?" Godrick flailed his arms wildly. The Tarnished promptly pressed his head into the ground.
"Shut up, brat! You've finally made me angry!" The Tarnished's sudden roar startled even Nepheli beside him.
"You...!" Godrick looked at the Tarnished with venom and madness in his eyes-and even a trace of fear.
He had never suffered such humiliation before, not even when facing the Valkyrie. Rumor had it that he had only survived by kneeling, begging, and kissing her feet, but the Valkyrie was far too proud to let a groveling wretch like Godrick touch her.
Yet now a Tarnished held him down with a single hand. Even using every one of his limbs, he could not break free.
"Godrick, a weak body is no sin. Strength lies not only in the body, but in the spirit as well. Just look at yourself. How ugly..." As he spoke, the Tarnished pressed down harder.
"This age has no shortage of people with extraordinary wisdom. Yet you chose a path that never suited you and committed such atrocities. You... have disgraced your ancestors, and above all, that great, bold Lion War King." A trace of pity flickered in the Tarnished's eyes.
"Lies! I... After everything I've endured, how could I lose to you?!"
"Hah. By everything you've endured, do you mean disguising yourself as a woman, mingling with the commoners, and fleeing in disgrace when disaster struck Leyndell? Or provoking the Valkyrie only to be nearly cut down by her? Godrick, you've gone mad!" Nepheli could no longer hold back. Godrick was simply insane. Talking to him was like talking to a brick wall. How could someone so pathetic be so full of himself?
"He even did that..." At Nepheli's words, the Tarnished's expression grew colder still. To think that man's bloodline had fallen so low.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! A mere Tarnished, a mere wretch!! Kneel before me! Kneel!" Godrick hammered the ground in fury as endless gales began to rise.
"You don't deserve to wield the storm," Nepheli and the Tarnished said in unison, Nepheli holding her twin axes.
"Let me lend a hand. I can't have come all this way for nothing!" Storm winds coiled around Nepheli, golden lightning flashing about her.
"Very well. It's time to end this." The Tarnished released Godrick, stepped back a few paces, and drew the Curved Sword from his back.
"Ah... Ah!!" Godrick charged toward the dragon's corpse like a madman. Suddenly, he smashed his own left hand to pieces, sending blood splattering everywhere.
"Ah... O dragon... Lend me thy strength! Ahhh!!" With a beastly growl, Godrick thrust his severed limb, glowing blood-red, into the dragon's head.
"He's starting to graft it!" Nepheli warned.
"Nothing but a dying struggle." The Tarnished raised the Curved Sword in one hand. The moment he lifted it, a gentle breeze stirred.
This is... wind. Such pure wind. Just who is this man...? Still, I can't just stand here and watch. Nepheli shook her head and continued expanding her storm.
"Ah..." Godrick panted heavily. The dragon's head he had grafted onto himself, which should have been utterly dead, actually began to move.
"Ah, my ancestors, one and all! Bear witness!!!" His face contorted hideously, Godrick raised the dragon's head. Searing dragonfire spewed from its dead maw.
"At this moment, this wind is the most fitting... Let it blow away your evil deeds, and that sullied royal bloodline..." The Tarnished exhaled a stale breath. In an instant, storms rose all around Stormveil Castle.
"Nepheli, lend me your strength." The Tarnished's expression remained calm, his gray-white hair blowing in the wind. His resolute face and upright bearing stood in stark contrast to the monstrous Godrick before him.
"Understood!" Nepheli answered. The Tarnished nodded slightly and tightened his grip. As though answering a summons, the storms converged, gathering upon the Curved Sword along with Nepheli's wind and lightning.
"Die!! Lowly Tarnished, I will not fall!! With my ancestors' glory, I shall crush you and burn you to ash!" Godrick unleashed the full force of his dragonfire upon Nepheli and the Tarnished.
"This ends here. I'll send you to meet your ancestors..." The Tarnished raised his storm-wreathed Curved Sword and delivered a diagonal slash. Boom! A Storm Blade Wave taller than the palace behind him shattered the dragonfire and hurtled straight toward Godrick.
"And now... There shall be no more Limgrave in the Lands Between. Only the land where fierce winds howl..."
"Stormhill!"
"No!!!" The storm tore away his filth, finally revealing Godrick's original body, withered and small.
"..." The Tarnished silently watched Godrick twitch upon the ground.
"Urgh... One day... We shall return to our home... To the foot of the Erdtree... Ah, my ancestors..."
His life ebbed away... Godrick... had fallen!
Before you continue