Galus walked to the entrance to the chapel, many pests were praying, and one was above them all, it's many arms stretched wide in exaltation, he walked into the chapel, and dropped a bundle of severed pest heads he'd cut off outside, some were young, possibly the rot kin pest equivalent of children, their strange blood splashing onto the floor, he reached up to his eyepatch taking it off, as the blue marble rolled around eventually the Carian rune faced outward revealing the splashes of color that magic had, he saw a splash of dark blue that looked particularly concentrated, and it wasn't coming from any of the pests, but rather rom the door way he'd come from. "Come on out you red hooded fuck." Galus growled.

Gowry tossed the black knife assassins cloak aside, it rippled like water. "My, you are full of surprises."

"I'm guessing you saw my fight with Maeve, if I knew you were following me I'd have put on more of a show." Galus said.

"Oh, there's no need." He said. "Maeve is just a bud, I'm after the real prize."

"It turns out I'm making all kinds of enemies with all kinds of gods these days, first Shabriri now the god of rot, listen, Millicent and Malenia are off fucking limits, I will end you if you come near either of them." Galus said, glaring.

Al the while Gowry was looking at the ground shaking, then Galus heard it, the laughter. "End me? you can't kill me, this isn't even my rea-"

"Not even your real body, yes I know, you're a big man who can't even bother to talk to lowly people like me in person." Galus said, mimicking a sock puppet with his hand.

"I won't be talked down to by an outlander." Gowry growled.

"Yes, you will, until you actually show yourself in person I will talk down to you until you either show up for me to kill you or kill yourself in annoyance." Galus said, smiling, as he summoned a discus and threw it severing the sages head, which lost it's hood and became more conical in shape and grew mandibles and carapace.

Gowry disappeared revealing the pest it was puppeting, he reappeared as preacher bug, this time holding a gnarled chunk of wood that Galus would generously call a staff. The sage looked angry now. "There's plenty of pests I can take control of-" The discus shifted and sheered the man in half slowly his body became more slender and the large abdomen and hands reappeared.

"This does no-" Another was cut in half as he took control of it, Galus literally cut him off.

"Enough!" Gowry shouted slamming the rotten wood staff down on the ground and an explosion of scarlet rot blasted the surrounding area around him, . "The age of rot is coming, and you will be unable to stop i-" They were cut in half again, and Galus cut apart the rest of the rot kin pests, before he produced a purple flame with a snap of his fingers and threw it at the ground in the middle of the orange cloud of rot, when the massive explosion of flames was over, he walked over to the elevator. The knights came into the building and Galus looked at them. "Clean up the bodies, just throw them into the ocean."

The two knights brought their fists to their chests and started to carefully pile the bodies, they all faintly smelled of kerosene, the rot in their blood apparently produced some highly flammable chemicals.

"Well, that went quite well..." Galus said to himself.

"I'll say, The rot has someone scheming for it, the rot up until now has been much like it's former god, a flailing animal that reacts on instinct, but with a sage leading it as a general, we may have a problem." Miquella's voice echoed in his head.

"That reminds me, when we get down there, you're taking the wheel, I'm not too keen on meeting your big sis when she wakes up." Galus said back as the elevator moved downward, the scaping stone reminding him of a giant whetstone along a massive blade.

"I'll see what I can do, but I almost Guarantee that she'll want to see what you're made of." Miquella's voice said teasingly.

"Your sister terrifies me, I still have nightmares about the fight with the fucking golem, you think I can take her?" Galus asked.

"HA! no." Miquella responded.

"Thank you my lord, your confidence warms my heart and gives me reassurance." Galus said sardonically.

"I'm not saying it to be mean, she's far more skilled than you are, but unlike you she doesn't have magic save that the rot would give her should she give in to the rots corruption." Miquella said.

The elevator came down to the bottom floor, and Galus walked in, looking at the room that was filled with aeonian butterflies and a fully formed aeonian blossom, the blossom seemed to attract the butterflies, there were scraps of white cloth hanging from the petals like Christmas decorations, likely the remnants of a Valkyries outfit, though he didn't know which one. either way, he wasn't going to go near it, he knew it didn't harm you in the game, but at the same time neither did the aeonian butterflies, but here those little bastards so much as touch him and he would be dead, he saw it with one of his soldiers when they cleared the waterfall. Galus passed the room without a second glance and walked through the hall, many small cocoons were on the ground or hanging from strings above, he always wondered what was inside of those, too small to be humans... He drew his knife and knelt with some difficulty given the prosthetic leg he had taken, but he managed it, he cut it open and inside was... nothing, it was just... cotton, thick white and foofy, Galus looked around for a sack, then remembered the red cloth he'd grabbed from stormveil castle, he'd gone so long without a pillow he swore he'd die if he had to use his bag as one again, but... he remembered it was on in horses satchel. he dropped the cotton and continued, careful to destroy the site of grace when he did.

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He walked down the stairs into the innermost sanctum of the haligtree, not a grand cathedral like they'd have done in Leyndell with massive arches and statues carved from the wood, but a calm place with only the surrounding wood and bark as decor, in the middle of it all a calm pond with small white and gold lillies protruded from the water, this wasn't a place of worship, but just a place where a brother and sister could be together without the heavy burden of war or politics to weigh them down, there was no elden throne, the only man made things were the golden prosthetics and helmet on the ground and the simple wooden chair that a beautiful red haired woman sat, a hand sparkling with unalloyed golden threads stitched into her flesh pressed against the tree, which had formed to make a massive shape of Miquella in the tree's roots, only a gaping hole was ripped out where their pelvis should have been.

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Galus' view was ripped from his eyes as he was plunged into the dreamscape with the twins, only it was dark the night sky glistened with fake stars, and He saw of all people, Lattena there, sitting on the ground before to Trina's throne. Miquella sat on his throne his eyes glowing a pale gold as he watched puppeted Galus' body forward, though Galus saw a ripple of anger cross his face when he saw what Mohg had done to the half formed... him. "knowing what someone did and seeing what they did are two wholly different things James." Miquella said, a dark look on his young face.

Sometimes Galus forgot this was a several century old man he was talking to. Galus sat down on a chair he conjured in his mind and sat down, then looked over to Lattena. "What's going on over there?" He asked Miquella.

"Shhh... I need to focus, speak quietly..." Miquella muttered, before continuing. "She's in her own dream getting orders, you can see her, but interaction is impossible, she'll be traveling separately from you for a while..."

"Why?" Galus half whispered. "Where's she going?"

"If I tell you, you'll need to promise me you won't freak out." Miquella muttered.

"I promise I won't freak out." Galus muttered back.

"Alright, she'll be traveling to Caelid to get you Trina's sword, it will be instrumental to you defeating Mohg..." Miquella muttered.

Galus stood up and shouted. "Are you cra-"

Galus felt a heavy weight fall onto him like a mountain, he immediately fell to the ground. "I said don't freak out, never break your promises Galus, you're too honest for that." Miquella muttered as his glowing eyes remained fixed to the screen in front of him, meanwhile Galus was unable to breath, though he doubted he actually needed to in the dreamscape, still it was painful. after a few seconds the invisible mountain disappeared and Galus could feel his lungs take in air. "Ow..."

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Miquella walked forward, Galus' one good eye shining a brilliant pale gold as he did, he smiled at his sister as he approached, and carefully moved a strand of crimson hair out of her face, her blind eyes snapped open, the dead flesh in her sockets grey and yet full of life, she grabbed his throat with her one arm and picked him up, she stood to her full seven feet tall, and spoke. "Whoever you are, you're unwelcome in my brother's sanctuary." She spun and flung Galus' body to the side and into a wall of roots. She reached down and grabbed her prosthetic, and with practice attached it to the metal socket on her arm, with a series of clicks it folded into place. She picked up a blade and put on her helmet, before pointing her blade at Miquella. "My name is Miquella, blade of Malenia, and I have never known defeat."

Miquella coughed on the ground before getting up. "Sister, it's me, your brother, Miquella, please, I-" He narrowly dodged her as she stabbed her sword into the wall not inches from his head.

"You dare claim to be he who you are not? I shall have your head." She leaned closer, her visored helm hiding her rotting blind eyes.

Miquella quickly took the opportunity to flip the small emergency release switch on her prosthetic socket, releasing the arm. "Would anyone other than me know where that was? I doubt even you knew that, sister."

Malenia took a few steps back, her mouth open in an expression of shock. "You... you don't sound like Miquella at all."

Miquella sighed, leaning against the massive root that was hugging the wall, the black metal armor clinking. "I'm currently controlling a man's body, his name is James, though he prefers to go by Galus, he's my aegis, my shield, I expect you two to work together to save me, it's the only way you'll have a chance."

Malenia lowered her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to nearly kill him."

"Yes you did, you may regret it now but you were aiming to kill, but that's not the point, I only have a few more seconds of control, so I just want to say this, I will save you sister." Miquella said.

"And I you." Malenia said.

Galus' puppeted lips turned up in a gentle smile. "I know."