On a battlefield strewn with blades and wreckage, the towering giant raised its head and gazed toward the small figure that had just appeared in the distance. Behind it, the sky burned crimson, rotted and knotted with a palpable, malicious aura.
This scene... looks familiar...
As he stared at Radahn far ahead, Lloyd drew his twin-headed blade. Just as he was wondering how the others he'd seen earlier would make their entrance, several golden summon signs lit up on the ground in front of him.
So that's how it's set up...
While he was still thinking, the distant giant lifted its Greatbow and drew back the string. Then, a massive arrow wreathed in gravity magic shot forth like a beam of light—instantly reaching Lloyd's position.
Bang!
The arrow slammed into where Lloyd stood. Upon impact, the gravitational vortex wrapped around it erupted outward—purple lightning crackling as everything nearby was pulled toward the impact point before detonating in a violent explosion.
Boom—
Just one shot was enough for Lloyd to understand why this battle needed so many allies.
Long range, high speed, tracking, massive area of effect, crowd control, triple impact and damage…
Taking a direct hit from that would tear you apart even if you survived.
And to make it worse, according to everything Lloyd had learned, Starscourge Radahn was supposed to specialize in melee combat—not ranged attacks.
But the arrow hadn't struck him.
Just as the giant nocked its bow, a golden figure shimmered into view in midair. One hand wrapped around Lloyd's neck; the other gently touched the top of his head, scattering radiant fragments of Abundance.
With a golden shimmer, Lloyd's body vanished just before the purple giant arrow reached him. When he reappeared, he was outside the range of the gravity magic.
[Abundance's Blessing: Swift Step]
[Swift Step: Replaces roll with a slide and greatly increases slide distance]
[Abundance's Blessing: Grace]
[Grace: Slightly raises max HP and restores health over time while active]
[Abundance's Blessing: Tear]
[Tear: Slightly boosts HP and Focus recovered by the Flask of Cerulean Tears and increases poise during use]
Though not as offensively powerful as Ranni—and with the power of Abundance having been long suppressed by corruption—Seriel still managed to offer Lloyd some support. After dodging the arrow, he accepted the golden needle Lloyd handed her and slowly pierced it into her own neck.
Meanwhile, across the battlefield, the giant seemed to recall some grim memory upon seeing the golden figure, and let out a furious roar.
Then, with renewed aggression, it raised its bow again—this time noticeably faster—and loosed a volley of three giant arrows at once.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The purple bolts struck one after another, hammering the ground with wave after wave of explosive force.
They came fast and in such numbers it was like an artillery barrage. Even with Seriel's support, dodging them was exhausting.
The closer Lloyd advanced, the shorter the flight time of each shot—and the harder they became to avoid. At a certain distance, the explosions grew so wide even Swift Step couldn't evade them. Getting close seemed impossible.
If Lloyd had been alone, his only option might have been to brute-force his way through the gravity blasts.
But this time, he wasn't alone.
With golden flashes lighting up the field, allies began appearing one by one.
Melina raised her hand, casting the Golden Vow over Lloyd. The blade in her other hand blazed with golden fire.
Millicent lifted her sword, glanced in Lloyd's direction, and darted to the flank—drawing fire and trying to split Radahn's attention.
Alexander the Warrior Jar charged straight in from the front, fighting beside Lloyd and using his massive body to shield him from as many of the gravity arrows as possible.
Blaidd seized the opening, flanking from the opposite side. He raised his Royal Greatsword, leapt high into the air, and came crashing down—unleashing a flurry of ice and snow in a massive frost storm.
Okina, Tragoth, Therolina...
Everyone surged toward the giant in their own way—not like mindless in-game NPCs, but fighting with strategies honed from experience, each choosing the approach that suited them best.
Oh, right—except for a certain Patches.
After being summoned, he made a show of charging forward, but after a quick glance at both sides' strength, he promptly froze in place.
Then, after standing there for a bit, apparently tired of it, he dropped into a squat—watching the distant battle unfold while snacking on a few shrimp he'd pulled out.
Then, Lloyd was blasted off his feet by a giant arrow that Radahn had deliberately lured him toward.
After the others closed in, Radahn put away his massive bow and drew the twin blades strapped to his back.
They were colossal black swords, each larger than anyone on the battlefield, inscribed with golden markings.
He raised the blades high as purple gravity sorcery surged from the hilts into the blades, erupting with a thunderous glow.
Then he struck down.
Boom!
The sudden burst of gravitational force swept across the battlefield, pulling everything toward the giant.
He raised them again.
Boom!
The compressed gravity instantly reversed into a repulsive blast. The shockwave exploded outward, and a storm of gravity surged through the entire battlefield.
Lloyd was caught in the storm too. Though he reacted quickly and dodged most of the blast, the storm lasted long and covered too much ground—he couldn't avoid getting grazed.
But he showed no intention of retreating. Instead, using the brief lull between the waves, he charged forward with his double-headed sword.
Radahn's black blade came crashing down, this time without gravity sorcery—but it was even fiercer than before.
Still, Lloyd didn't defend. Instead, he activated his Ash of War with the double-headed sword and sidestepped to Radahn's flank as he attacked, causing the slash to miss entirely.
"You're too big."
Large enemies often boast immense power, wide attack ranges, and natural resistance, creating an overwhelming sense of pressure. But they also tend to have wider and more obvious blind spots than smaller foes.
These blind spots aren't just about angles—under the same structure, the area that can't be hit is about the same regardless of size. The issue is that when you scale up, so does the size of the blind spot.
What a small enemy can't reach might only be the size of an arm, but once scaled up proportionally, that same dead zone could be large enough to fit a person.
Radahn's attacks were blisteringly fast and devastating, with a massive range that fully justified his title as the strongest Demigod.
But it was this very ferocity, combined with the relentless assaults and experimentation of the others, that made it easier for Lloyd to identify his blind spots and time his strikes.
Still, finding the opening didn't mean Lloyd could just stay in place and dish out damage.
This wasn't a game. Radahn, despite his madness, still had enough awareness to avoid attacks. His mastery of gravity magic allowed him to strike even the most unreachable angles.
If Lloyd had been alone, Radahn could've just kept chasing him down, never giving him the chance to exploit those blind spots.
But the reality was, Lloyd wasn't the only one fighting.
He was surrounded by others—heroes, each wielding their own unique skills: Okina's bleeding, Blaidd's freezing, Tragoth's giant hammer. Nearby, the Finger Maiden, though not adept in combat, was steadily repeating her healing spell.
Forget Starscourge— even the combined might of Old Margit and Full Moon Seath didn't get half this kind of attention.
So under the joint assault of this legendary force, Starscourge Radahn's health steadily dropped.
Before long, it hit the halfway mark.
Boom!
The instant his health dropped to half, a massive repulsion wave erupted. It didn't deal any damage but instantly knocked everyone away from him.
Then, as if some force inside him could no longer be contained after the injury, the giant bent over, grabbed his throat with one hand, and opened his mouth.
"Oh... the Blood of the Dark Soul..."
The dark shards embedded in his neck, previously suppressed, began to tremble.
As they shuddered, Radahn's expression shifted from madness to agony.
From the corners of his eyes, his mouth, his ears...
A black-red mist, like ethereal soul vapor, began to seep from his face. His red cloak seemed to ignite with dark red blood, and twisted faces began to emerge from within it.
The sky darkened. The once crimson heavens, already reeking of decay, were now tainted further—deepening into an even more unsettling blood-red hue.
The battlefield, originally blanketed in Scarlet Rot, also began to change as it came into contact with the soul blood flowing from Radahn.
What the people of the Lands Between deemed an omen—Scarlet Rot, which had consumed all of Caelid—failed to corrupt this dark soul blood. In fact, the moment it touched it, the Rot was corrupted instead.
Darkness spread. Distortions rippled outward. Within the abyssal gloom, countless souls began to scream in torment.
Amid those screams, another shard began to tremble.
It was the soul of a giant—not a warrior, but a robed figure resembling a judge.
He raised his hand. With a resounding crash that seemed to echo from the soul itself, those who had once perished on this land—now formless and wandering—reappeared in spectral form, once again standing by their general's side.
Radahn lifted his head. Though his eyes were consumed by the corruption of both dark soul and Scarlet Rot, he still struggled to speak.
"Leave..."
"The stars must be sealed..."
"And the Blood of the Dark Soul..."
"I can't... die."
The people nearby reacted differently to Radahn's words.
Okina looked completely unfazed, as if he hadn't heard anything unusual.
Blaidd frowned, seemingly lost in thought.
Tragoth looked confused, gripping his hammer, unsure whether to charge or hold back.
And then there was Patches, staring like he'd seen a ghost.
"What the hell? Why is Ringed City stuff showing up here?"
Lloyd gave him a glance. "Aren't you here too?"
"I was just... ah, forget it."
For once, Patches stopped crouching and watching from the sidelines. He raised his shield and half-leaf greatsword.
Lloyd gave him a surprised look—strange that he wasn't running away this time.
But he didn't dwell on it. In fact, it felt oddly familiar... as if they'd fought like this side by side before.
"Those things... they're not Scarlet Rot..."
Watching the dark soul blood pour from Radahn's body, Seriel's expression turned grim.
"I know."
Lloyd nodded as embers flared across his body.
"Just focus on building strength and purging the Rot. Leave the Blood of the Dark Soul to me."
With that, the double-headed sword in Lloyd's hand transformed into the Bloodhound's Fang. He dashed forward, leading the charge toward the towering giant drenched in dark soul blood.
"ROAR—!"
The giant let out a sky-shaking roar. From his chest surged a mass of dark soul energy, ghostlike and ferocious, rushing at Lloyd.
At the same time, the spirits summoned by the giant judge raised their weapons and charged toward him.
Then—
Shk—
Okina's blade was the first to pierce through a spirit's chest.
He had come here to challenge powerful foes. Whatever was happening to Radahn didn't concern him—he was here for the fight. And he moved first.
Following his lead, and without fully grasping the situation, the others jumped into action.
Blaidd, relying on his massive body and wide attack range, charged straight into the swarm of spirits, tearing through them like a force of nature.
Melina, while casting her usual support sorceries, now had a faint red glow pulsing through her golden blade.
Millicent, on the other side, opened with the Waterfowl Dance, carving a bloody path through the battlefield.
Tragoth, clad in thick armor, barreled into the middle of the fray, drawing the attention of the most elite spirits.
Even Patches didn't slack off this time. Shield in one hand, blade in the other, he charged forward alongside Lloyd. Then...
The Splitleaf Greatsword in his grip began spinning like a helicopter rotor.
Faster and faster.
Lloyd raised an eyebrow.
Infinite Splitleaf combo, huh?
With the others drawing enemy attention and Patches and Alexander clearing a path, Lloyd quickly closed in on Radahn.
As he arrived, Radahn could no longer suppress the forces within. The conflict on his face vanished, replaced entirely by scarlet and darkness.
His gravity greatsword, once glowing with purple energy, was now sheathed in a layer of dark red soul flame.
"Your blood... the blood of your dark soul..."
"Give it to me!"
BOOM!
The giant blade came crashing down.
Lightning rained from the heavens, illuminating the entire battlefield.
And beneath that storm of thunder...
A battlefield where heroic spirits clashed with living legends.
And a chaotic storm of darkness and gravity sorcery engulfed everything.
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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