Today was a good day.
For Marika's people, or rather, those royals, it was a good day.
For the commoners, it was a good day.
The Demigods held a banquet, and they would hold banquets too.
They gathered together, feasting, drinking, and reveling.
Although the royals usually indulged themselves too, doing so with Marika and the Demigods made it especially memorable.
It was like celebrating the New Year: happy or not, they had to celebrate it all the same.
When the people of the Lands Between saw the unusually dazzling Erdtree, they found it interesting rather than frightening.
It was their first time seeing the Erdtree like this, and they had no idea what exactly had happened.
In any case, it looked beautiful, lighting even the night sky gold.
What was frightening, however, was the news they would hear next.
It was Marika's voice, proclaiming to the world: "Now, I will take back everyone's grace. You will all become Tarnished. And your new grace will be decided by the new Goddess!"
When they first heard this, the people were at a loss.
It was transmitted directly into their minds through the Erdtree's grace, so anyone with grace could hear it.
But immediately afterward, a speck of light drifted out of each person and flew toward the Erdtree.
Soon, densely packed specks of light appeared throughout the Lands Between.
Like starlight, they converged in the air and returned to the Erdtree together.
The sight was extraordinarily spectacular.
They all but blotted out the sky. Everyone looked up, and all they could see were streams of golden light.
Some tried to catch the golden specks flying out of their bodies, only to grasp empty air.
Some looked at their eyes in mirrors and discovered that they had lost their golden glow.
Some