"Crabs! Get your crabs here!" Galus called out as he set up a pair of long makeshift tables for the a village, he'd boiled a good ten out of the thirty crabs from the big mamma crab down in the lake below. He'd punctured their heads one at a time before dunking them in a large cauldron that he'd borrowed from Albus. Lattena hunted them a couple goats when Galus told her his idea for a feast, she'd also seemed really excited at the idea.

Galus asked Albus if they had any butter, he looked confused, and asked what butter was. Galus realized for the first time that in all of his hours of playing elden ring, he'd never seen a single ox yak or cow, and most of the food in the game wasn't used for survival purposes, rather it was used for buffs and resistances.

He sighed not knowing anything that could be used to season meat, what was it that the mc in rising of the shield hero said? It's one thing to play in a world, it's another thing entirely to live in a world... Or something along those lines, regardless he saw exactly what they meant now.

Galus sat not at the head of the table, he gave that to Albus, he wouldn't want to undermine his authority.

Albus looked at the thirty three people who were seated at the two tables. "It is unfortunate that I must say this while we're feasting, but it must be said. Don't think of it as us only having thirty survivors, but think of it as we have as many as thirty survivors, we managed to survive and our friends would be happy that things seem to be looking up for us, that against all possible odds we managed to survive the tragedy." Albus got up onto the stone that was set up for him and started to eat. Galus allowed others to cook the meat, he had guessed that seasons herbs and spices were something for nobility, not outcasts who have been expelled to the very edge of society.

Galus cut a piece of haunch from the goat which was over a cooking fire on a spit, he had to admit, Lattena was damn good at cooking and hunting. He saw Lobo looking at him with big puppy dog eyes, Galus laughed and cut him a small piece as well.

He sat down, and listened to the rest of Albus' speech. Galus closed his eye, and when the speech ended he opened it and started eating.

The meat wasn't bad all things considered, even simple salt wasn't available but it was juicy and tender and he'd take it over rowa berry stew anyday. Galus closed his eyes and smiled at the flavor, it was the best thing he'd eaten since he shot that deer a while back, that reminded him, he'd need to go pick up Selen's body, maybe pay Ranni and Blaidd a visit if Blaidd was there, maybe Iji would be there and he could take a look at my weapon maybe make me a new one if he was inclined, though that could take time, time that he might not have.

He realized he'd been staring into space for like five minutes and Nepheli was trying to talk to him, he blinked to clear his head. "Sorry, can you repeat that?"

Nepheli looked at him from across the table, they had an entire goats leg on their plate and half of it was gone, these badlanders could eat a horse and ask for dessert. "I was thanking you for not killing my foster father."

Galus blinked in surprise, then looked around, Irina was over by Albus and Edgar beside her, Lattena was gone and so was Lobo, he turned back to his fish as he heard the snap of a bowstring. "Don't thank me yet... I think the locals just got their justice."

She looked confused, then realization dawned on her face and she got up so fast that her wast pushed the massive table back against Galus who let out an Umph and the albinaurics at the table were nearly thrown back.

Galus looked at his unfinished meal and sighed, stabbing his fork into the goat meat and followed after Nepheli to make sure she didn't kill Lattena, he'd admit when he told her they'd had Gideon here, he'd been half hoping this would be the outcome, Gideon posed a massive threat that needed to be taken care of immediately.

Galus turned the corner and nearly got struck by lightning, Nepheli was exuding an aura of wind and electricity was sparking in the air, occasionally some would strike the roof of the massive cavern as a bolt of lightning erupted upwards. Galus looked over to Lattena who was on top of her wolf her bluish black cloak flapping as she held her longbow, Gideon's body was behind her a long thin arrow was protruding from his neck, he'd long since bled out probably before they'd even got over here. Galus saw Nepheli was beyond pissed and twice as sad as she was angry, and Lattena was rather stoic and cold in the face of the onslaught he saw a strand of silver hair come from beneath their chainmail hood.

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Galus sighed. Summoning his discus of light and tossed it between the pair. "That is quite enough both of you."

They both looked at him with the mutual expression of don't get in the middle of this. Galus shook his head. "Just don't kill eachother or cause permanent harm."

Nepheli looked back at at Lattena. "I can work with that."

Lattena nodded. "Same here."

And Galus turned back to the dinner table to finish eating, when he heard something behind him. He turned feeling the shockwave, as Godricks great rune was going to be absorbed into Lattena, only, it seemed to change corpse and be absorbed by Nepheli, if he remembered correctly Godricks great rune was symbolic of the golden lineage, so it going to Nepheli made sense... Kinda... This really complicated things, most of the reason he didn't try and get great runes was because he wanted as little attention as possible, he shook his head, maybe this had a silver lining, he'd be damned if he could see it.

He was nearly blown off his feet by the increase in the winds power, he looked at Nepheli, she'd grown by nearly two feet, she was already six foot by his rudimentary guess, so this likely made her as tall as Godfrey, what the fuck was going on?! He summoned his bastard sword and planted it into the ground to keep from getting tossed around like a ragdoll. "Stop this now!" He yelled but his voice was shoved right back down his throat as the wind blew into his mouth.

He looked to Lattena to see how she was doing, and she was pressed up against Lobo almost hugging him. Galus shook his head, this had gone beyond way too far. He once again summoned a discus of light and threw it toward Nepheli, just hoping to have it fly around her head, it did as bidden doing rings around her head. What he didn't expect was for her to catch the fucking thing and crush it in a shower of golden sparks in her catchers mitt of a hand.

She walked toward Lattena her footsteps causing the ground to shake and he saw stalactites fall from the cieling. He had to stop this NOW. He unleashed a blast of flames of slumber into the tornado, it swirled around, and Galus continued this until his head felt like it was going to explode and he tasted copper in his mouth, something wet was trailing from his eyes nose and ears but finally violet tornado died down and Nepheli was asleep. He tried to drag her massive form back to the feast he found that she'd grown an insane amount of muscle in her transformation as well, so this was what happened when a greatrune was given to someone that it wanted to be with not just someone who killed someone else.

Galus managed to drag her, he'd had plenty of practice with Blaidd when was injured, and this time he didn't have a concussion and a chunk of rock in his face. Galus set her down next to the fire, one of the tables was ruined and one of the albinaurics was nursing a cut on their arm.

Galus sat down in front of her, and shook her awake. She blinked awake and saw the damage she'd done, she started crying, and Galus reached up and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "I'm just like him..." She choked out. "I hurt the weak and I can't even control myself..."

Galus shook her shoulder. "Listen to me, you're not him, he hurt people because it benefited his plans, you did it because you lost control, it's called an accident, it happens. Hell, I've had similar stuff happen."

She looked at him with tears streaming down her face, dispite her size and strength she's rather soft inside. "You have?"

Galus shook his head. "Well I haven't had a shard of near infinite power choose to grant me immeasurable size and strength but I have lost control of my emotions, especially with anger, I'm not saying that you weren't justified in your rage, but you need to learn control over it, trust me, I know it's hard to not let it take control, it's an overwhelming emotion like a fathomless inferno that could consume you at the drop of a hat. Make no mistake, your rage will consume you, and when you spend your life angry and fighting, eventually you'll find the anger is gone, and it's taken everything from you and left you alone in the charred rubble of your life."

Galus helped her up all night feet of her. It wasn't easy. "Will you come with me? To the Haligtree, we need someone like you."

Nepheli looked at him, and wiped her reddened eyes. "I would love to... But... I don't want to cause derision in your group..."

Galus patted her arm. "You won't cause derision in anything except the bigoted maniacs who take out their depravity upon the weak, you don't need to decide today, but we'll leave tomorrow, keep in mind, that if you do, you can further help heal this land, keep it in mind okay?"

She nodded and Galus went over to his tent, it was getting late and he needed a break.

Galus approached Miquella and Saint Trina who were playing that game again, and sat down at the stump where they were playing a game that looked much like chess. small metal iron and gold figurines on the board faced eachother and there were sixty four tiles that the pieces stood on. Miquella looked at him. "Did you need something?"

Galus sat down. "I need a break."

Miquella nodded understandingly. "We're here if you need to talk."

Galus took a minute to think. "What do you think of my choices in recruiting these people? Edgar while a former slave owner in the weeping peninsula, his military experience as a commander could make a good advisor, Nepheli has the heart to help those in need, Lattena is a great cavalry archer and huntress, and a prodigy glintstone mage is always something good to have on hand."

Miquella looked thoughtful. "Edgar while yes he was a slaver, he seems to be running on the path of redemption. As for Selen, I'd tread lightly with her, she is dangerous."

Galus nodded. "I know, I'll be as careful as a slug in a salt mine... Besides, we can do worse than Selen, we could have Seluvis."

Trina visibly bristled and Miquella sighed. "Here we go..."

Trina got up and walked over to Galus put her hands on his cheeks and made him look her in the eyes. "Make, Seluvis, pay, make him suffer a fate worse than death. Force one of those filthy puppet potions down his fucking throat!"

Galus was taken aback by the usually quiet and reserved girl screaming for Seluvis' head. He stood up and bowed. "I'm glad you ordered me to do that ma'am."

Galus woke up, it was early morning he could see the sun rising in the distance. He dismantled his tent and rolled it up, it was a good going away gift from the albinaurics, he put the rolled up stitched up hides and tied it onto the saddle.

He looked over to where Edgar and Irina who were waking up themselves. "We're leaving in an hour, wake up, get some breakfast, and I think we could get something packed for the road. We're heading to Carian manor and we'll meet Selen there."

Edgar looked confused. "Selen is dead."

Galus waved it off. "You'll understand when we get there."