Galus stood in front of the elevator up to the mountains, they'd stayed maybe six days until Lattena's friend had been healed by Lanssax, eyes and all, she didn't off the same courtesy to him, not that he would have accepted, what he didn't see when he first saw Lattena's friend's injuries was that her middle fingers were gone.

But that aside, apparently Lanssax really wanted us out of Leyndell, she even gave them a spare medalion for the lift, it was all Galus could do to dodge the dragon sized boot that followed his exit. He was suspicious about Lanssax but didn't care enough to scratch that curious itch, not to mention that she'd kill him for sticking his nose into her business.

As they left Galus stuck his middle finger into the air toward the city of Leyndell below.

Edgar looked at him. "What are you doing?"

Galus nodded to Mirina. "Where I come from, back when we still used bows, people who took prisoners had their middle fingers cut off so they couldn't shoot bow anymore, so one day in a siege the invading force of one of these prisons stuck their middle fingers into the air at them, it was a symbol of defiance to say that we can still shoot our bows, so we are still a threat, so watch yourself, centuries later it was just retranslated to fuck you."

Edgar chuckled and Mirina weakly held up her new and improved middle fingers at the city below, apparently healing didn't cure months of starvation, must suck to live in a world where you can't truly die no matter what you do. Lattena did the same, and pretty soon the entire group was doing it. It felt ridiculous but it was a nice moment. After a while they rode away on their horses, bad news was they had an extra passenger for the ride and were all the slower for it, good news was Godfrey gave them some actual horse armor for Tempest and Gale, all they had to do was clean off the blood, and repair the damage that looked suspiciously like it was caused by a battle axe.

Eventually they came to the managed to get to the grand lift up to the mountains, it was a long ride up to the top of the mountain, in fact it took nearly thirty minutes by his count, that was alright though gave them enough time to sit and talk for a while as the rough stone walls passed them by.

the lift came up to the sky above revealing the snowy landscape, Galus flipped up the white fur lined hood around his helmet, he was glad Iji had accounted for the climates temperature when he made his armor. He looked around and and narrowly dodged a long katana blade, low and fucking behold Shabriri was there puppeting Yura's corpse. Galus motioned everyone back with his offhand as he unsheathed his hound sword.

Galus ducked another swipe of the overly long sword, he'd never liked the design from soft did for the washing pole, the handle was way too short, if they'd made the handle a foot or two longer and made it look more like an Odachi he'd have absolutely loved it. But as it was it looked goofy.

Shabriri laughed. "This body is perfect, it's techniques are engraved into his very bones!" He cackled as he stabbed at Galus again, he narrowly dodged and slid back on the frozen stones. "She's mine, you cannot save her this time!" He said, then turned toward Irina and charged.

Galus felt a blur and he was in front of the blade, his stomach exploded in pain and saw the inhuman grin literally splitting Yura's face. Galus noticed the blade was up to it's guard in his stomach, he looked back over his shoulder seeing the rest of the blades length piercing through Irina's stomach as well, he failed, after everything he did he fucking failed to keep her safe! Galus grabbed Yura by the dumb fucking hat he was wearing and ripped it off revealing the pale beared corpse beneath, he threw it aside and struck at Shabriri with his fist, just as Shabriri yanked the blade out, it hurt like hell and he felt that damn rage bubbling up again, it burned and roiled and escaped from his lips as a roar. His eye burned like a cinder, his body crouched, over, blood staining the white snow in streaks as he dashed forward it was an animalistic charge, he flanked right and attacked from a low position fighting like he hound stepped as the corpses engrained defense moved to block his strike he attacked from the opposite side, cutting deep entrails spattered onto the ground but a corpse doesn't need a digestive system to fight, he moved gain, dashing to the right and leaping above bringing his sword around in a crescent arc aiming for his fucking neck, his black managed to get between them but the kick that followed Galus' sword landed right into Yura's chest. Once more a small reasonable part of his psyche knew he needed medical attention and Irina did too, the rest of him bayed for this man's blood.

Galus he brought his blade down as he landed and used it to flung the powdery snow into Yura's face, and the slashed another strike this time into his calf, his blade sheering away at senu and muscle, he even felt it scrape the bone, if Shabriri hadn't moved he'd have cut through the leg with little more resistance than cutting an ice sickle wrapped in tissue paper.

He covered his moth as he coughed up a good cup maybe of blood, this caused the concerned part of him to grow and he finally took his flask out of his bag and took a drink, then tossed it over to Edgar who was putting pressure on Irina's wound. His fifteen hours of community service put in he walked toward Shabriri, closing the distance as he threw a discus at him, he tried to block it but it sheered the blade in half cleanly, frankly it was probably more useful that way, which was why he recalled it and this time he dodged the disc, Galus grabbed it and spun as he threw it again, this time following it himself and swinging his sword, it collided with Yura's broken sword, the disc passed through the walking corpses arm like butter, they flipped the sword into a reverse grip and attacked in an upward diagonal angle nearly hitting Galus across the chest, luckily he dodged in time by skipping backwards, he gritted his teeth and moved his head as the broken blade darted for him nearly taking his other eye instead just leaving a long red cut on his face. he brought his sword down, as the discus raced back toward the swordsman's animated corpse, and he made the mistake of blocking his blade and not dodging because the disc went right through it's neck severing his head. It swayed to the right, then to the left dropping it's weapon, which Galus gladly too, he while katanas aren't the best weapons in the world they were far from the worst, there were still nunchucks after all.

The body fell back with a thud and a crunch from the snow. Galus knelt down next the body and took the blade and sheath, it's a bit long for the blade but that can be fixed pretty easily. He got up after cutting the saiya in half and popping in the bottom cap onto the part where he cut, whatever that part was called, most he knows is the sheath is called a saiya. He looked at the blade, flat on top, can't stab with it, and the edge of the blade was a red line or dripping blood, he flicked it onto the snow and it actually came away nearly completely clean, it was a very thin blade, he guessed it that's why it broke so damn easily, it's basically a really long razor, he supposed it'd be useful, if he needed to shave, which he probably did come to think of it, he'd been in this land for maybe three weeks now and he had quite the beard growing, it wasn't anything like Godfrey's glorious braided beard.

He stepped away sheathing the blade and put it into his saddle next to Crepus' key blade and crossbow, then turned to Edgar and Irina, what the hell has he been thinking playing arts and crafts in the middle of this? He rushed over to the pair and knelt down next to Irina. "You okay champ?" He asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. S

he nodded, pressing her hand hand over a rapidly fading wound, "if that blow had been an inch higher it would have cut her stomach open..." A voice said behind them.

Galus spun, seeing a beautiful blond woman in a perfumers uniform, just without the cloth around their head. He swore he recognized the voice. "Lyrina?"

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She glared at him. "You're an ass hole." Galus was about to tell her to jump off the mountain to whense she came but she spoke before he could. "But you weren't wrong, Leyndell is all but empty and for the last few nights I had been being followed by confessors, none of my old friends would talk to me and they nearly captured me in my own house, at that point I was paranoid and had booby trapped my doors and windows, they tried to get in through my window and got their face blown off with glass shrapnel from the windowpane thrown in just to be safe."

Galus closed his eyes, they had no more room in their horses, she'd slow us down considerably. "How did you even get up here?"

She smirked. "I climbed the statues and hid above you guys as the elevator rose."

Galus scratched his head. "Yeah... That'll do it..."

Galus walked over to a cluster of roots, he brought his sword down on the root cluster.

After thoroughly destroying it, he got onto Tempest, he patted it's neck his gauntleted hand clinking on the gilded horse armor. He looked over at the others. "Keep your heads on swivels."

They nodded and mounted up Lyrina the only one who didn't have anything to ride. He'd need to figure out something for her. Then the idea hit him in the face hard enough to give him a broken nose. He sighed, and looked around, ironically nobody in his party had a shield that he could tie to his horse saddle to pull as a sled, but he could just summon a disc of light and just let her sit on that while they travel, unfortunately that rapidly drained his focus, he closed his eyes, so looked like his proverbial nose was bloodied for nothing. "Looks like you're walking Lyrina, we're all doubled up on our horses but we'll go slow for you, you'll be taking turns with Nepheli riding with me."

Lyrina glared. "Can I ride with anyone else?"

Galus pointed at Lattena and Mirina. "They're both paraplegic," he shifted his finger to Edgar and Irina. "She's blind and he's wearing heavy platemail as I also do, so no, Nepheli is probably the only one who can walk in the snow on her own, aside from you of course, trust me, I've taken everything into account, this is the best way to do this."

Her glare deepened. "We're so dead, can't you use that round thingy?"

Galus glared back now. "Thought of that, it drains my energy and I'd likely drop you off the mountain after a few minutes, not out of malice mind you, but because it would feel like a tree sentinel's horse is tap-dancing on my skull."

Lyrina sighed. "Alright, well, next time we stop I'll give your friend a check up."

So they rode off into the Zamor ruins, the ruins were unlike they were in the game, not the copied and pasted bricks ruins he'd seen all over the game, no the winter breeze whistled through the stonework, the wind played across the walls and pillars making whistles turned into songs upon the winds, he saw these engravings all across the stone walls that surrounded them and some looked to make pictures, one depicted people singing and dancing in the wind, another depicted giants surrounding a massive caldron, another depicted their war, another showed their defeat and enslavement, and then a new picture depicted a man with a battleaxe breaking their chains and leading them against the giants, and the last showed the victorious as giants were ripped apart by massive thorns.

Galus was so taken by the carvings that he almost missed the silhouettes of the masked figures staring at them as they rode forward, Edgar gripped his halberd but Galus flicked his fingers downward as a sign for him to not fuck them over while surrounded by hundreds of innocent people.

His eyes narrowed but Galus held his stare and after what felt like eternity Edgar dropped his hand back to his reins. Galus turned his head back forward, though his eye darted around looking at the people who stared at them from the ruins, he noticed little wind chimes made of ice, he didn't know how they didn't shatter especially with the engravings on them but frankly he liked the place, he thought a good name for the place was the valley of music.

They rode on, as they left the ruined village he heard the people of zamor singing behind them, a sad song one would probably sing when they see men riding to certain doom.

As they rode a few storm hawks flew overhead, their white bodies were beautiful especially with the massive pale moon overhead, he saw the massive carvings on the moon, but he didn't get it, if it was Ranni's rune why didn't she put it on her dark moon, why Rennalas full moon? He shook his head, he watched one of the massive hawks swooped down and Galus held out an arm, to his surprise it landed on his arm, though it paid him no mind, instead looking deeply into Nepheli's eyes, and then it bowed, it's wings spreading out and pushed into his face with feathers, Galus jumped as another hawk swept down and landed on his shoulder and bowed to Nepheli as well, the fuck was going on? Pretty soon Galus was covered by avions showing reverence to the new storm queen. Now Galus loved animals, in fact he'd been head of the k9 unit in his police department because of the way he connected with the doggo's, but these birds were getting on his nerve, the amount of perches they found was damned impressive but he was getting flashbacks to when a bird took a dump on his vanilla ice cream and when he licked he found a little extra toppings than what he bargained for, Worst day of his young life. He finally had enough and brushed the glorified chickens off of him, he didn't know how he managed to accumulate five of them but only one remained on him by the time he was done, atleast these didn't have those prosthetic blades where their legs used to be, poor birbs. Well the birds now trailed them and as they approached a pass they screached overhead, useful.

they came over a group of people in red with crowns of thorns on their heads, He looked down at them, the massive fat bastard was definitely the leader of these little baby Jesus cosplayers. He summoned a discus and held it having it pull from his hand as he did his damnedest to hold on as he aimed it at the prelates head, he was pretty damn sure these guys wouldn't let them past just because they pinky promised not to burn the erd tree down. He'd killed before but this time it felt wrong, maybe it was because this was a man who dedicated everything to resisting temptation, he shook his head clearing his thoughts, this was necessary, he wasn't the man he was when he first got here, he'd been softer then, now however... He released the disc and it zipped as the pent up force of his holding it back as it resisted his pull made it move much faster than normal, it sheered the head off off the massive man and they dropped their massive blood thorn whip, oh, perfect, an excuse to kill him, he used the power of blood. Surely he was corrupted, Galus knew it was a steaming pile of bullshit. He closed his eyes and rode forward, the guilty turned as he rode and a few raised their stabs to summon the massive red thorny vines, but the ring of light cut through them, their heads falling to the ground. Soon as they were gone they rode over and started to cross the massive bridge single file, a massive arrow smashed into the stone below them, Galus summoned two discs as large as he could make them, they hovered in front of them blocking the next arrow.

They did their job well enough though the arrow collided hard enough that it actually pushed the disc shield back a few feet, though a bit of adjustment fixed that. After a few minutes of riding the golem seemed to run out of arrows. And as if on queue Nepheli summoned a small tornado behind it and it collided with the golem knocking it forward a step, unfortunately for it a step was all we needed as it tumbled from the mountain top and to the foot of the mountain below, and they rode on, coming to the next mountain, he cut the next grace site, dragging his blade across it as he passed, he felt a distant shockwave, and a beam of orange light towering into the sky before fading , Galus narrowed his eyes, it was the same sound he heard when Godrick died, he'd supposed someone took care of Rennala, as it seemed to come from raya lucaria if he wasn't mistaken.

He turned back wondering who did it, Gideon and Diallos proved that it could be anyone who can take down a shard bearer, not just the rune hunter, he hoped that Rennala was okay, come to think of it, weren't Ranni's knights supposed to be invading Raya Lucaria, were they responsible for that? Perhaps in Rennalas delirium she attacked her own knights, great work Ranni, how did keeping her mind in rem sleep but her body awake help her deal with her trauma at all.

He shook his head finally hearing the hawks shrieking above, the group rounded a corner and Galus saw another golem, two of them, bonus ducks! He closed his eyes and swore to God he'd find their inventor and strangle them with his bare hands.

After internally screaming a bit he noticed Nepheli was talking to him. She wanted to go take care of them, alone! He turned to her and raised his eye patch. "First time I killed one of these guys, it exploded sending stone shrapnel everywhere, some pelted my body another took out my eye, and I had to drag my friend Blaidd by his cape all the way back to Korne's camp from castle Morne, are you absolutely certain you want to get into melee range with a walking shrapnel grenade?"

She sighed. "I promise to be extra careful, that work for you? Also what is a shrapnel grenade?"

Galus shook his head. "Exactly what I described, it's an object you throw and it exploded but people also put things like nails, iron shavings, and other such things inside, throw it and it exploded and the stuff inside shoots out everywhere killing or injuring anything in range."

She blinked. "Well now I'll be extra careful."

Galus looked at her flatly. "Okay, go get them tiger. Just dismember the limbs do 'not' hit the torso."

She hopped off the back of the horse and he noticed Lyrina get onto the horse behind him, she did not miss a beat. "Can you show me how to make one of those?"

Galus shook his head. "Well, I would but I don't have the materials, I'd need three specific components, only one of which are available to me, I can tell you what you'd need, but that's about it."

She looked at him. "Go on then."

Galus looked down. "Well, for one you need charcoal which is pretty easy to come by, next you'd need ammonia which you can get if you get creative, finally you need sulfur, which would require us to turn back and go to mount Gelmir and we did not come this far just to turn back, we have a mission and as nice and cozy as I'd be with some extra firepower, we're on a mission."

Lyrina raised an eyebrow. "Mission?"

Galus nodded. "Saving lord Miquella, he's in peril, I'm gonna kill the blood loving psychopath who has him and I'm gonna enjoy every part of it."

Galus could physically feel her scoot back an inch. He looked at how Nephi was doing, she cut off it's legs and was moving into the first ones arms.

He turned to Edgar. "You wanna give her some hel-" CRACKATHABOOM!

Galus was nearly deafened as a Golem exploded, he only caught a glimpse of the shrapnel that severed his leg just below the knee. He winced and then his vision went black.