Marika
Quietly stepping through the last of the walkways through the servants exit, the two slowly stood straight as their eyes looked out on the crumbled ruins of a kingdom. Stood on the wall in a crumbled sentry tower, they saw empty streets and quiet houses where there were some left. A great weapon was buried in the middle through the corpse of an ancient dragon who lay crashed against the central tower walls around the castle itself. The structures once golden glow aged to a sandy yellow.
The whole place reeked of blood and suffering. She saw her knight cover her mouth, seemingly withholding a retch that threatened to bubble out at the scent. "All of this... Our Kingdom... our... Our order..." She spoke quietly in sorrow. To hear and to see were worlds apart, and seeing the capital to her glory so heavily broken and rotted made her heart nearly pop out of her throat. She felt Him thrum against her thoughts for only a moment as shame took her, but only a moment.
"We will make it right." She turned as her lover spoke, kissing Marika's hand affectionately. "That, I promise you."
"Can any of this be made right anymore?"
"One way..."
"And that is...?"
Her knight looked slowly up at the great Erdtree. "To burn it all down."
Marika looked shakily at her lover, but knew her to be right. Melina had been made for that very task someday, much to her ever mounting pile of shame. "Whatever it takes to give them peace..."
She felt her Knight's arms around her, holding her in a comforting hug for a moment. "I have you." She whispered tenderly to the gilded queen. She clutched to her tightly, and let a few withheld tears fall before they set out.
...
Luna
Dashing across the street as Marika ran alongside her in tow, the crashing arrows from the well armored knights smashed against a carriage they ducked behind for a moment. From the moment they passed that broken sentry station it had been fight after fight. "Can't say it's not well guarded."
"Well..."
"Hold that thought." She grabbed Marika and jumped away as a tree guardian crashed onto the carriage with a massive burst of dust and debris. It hefted its large club, swinging on the duo in short order.
Marika ducked beneath it as her knight leapt up and rode the swing for a moment before slamming down into the empty neck of the guardian and opening her scythe right inside its heart. The massive tree creature fumbled its club and stumbled for a few steps before collapsing as she ripped out a beating root like core and flicked it off her blade before refolding it. Ducking under another shot, they could see two knights charging while two more continued a barrage of great arrows.
"We need to go!" She slid down the massive corpse as it took several arrows, nodding to Marika before both bolted down the street. A swing or two from Marika's hammer or Luna's scythe dispatched the riff raff with ease. Few recognized their former queen, and those that did only seemed to grow more hostile.
They dipped around a few stairs, fighting through shieldman and rabble before emerging onto a path that seemed to be dead.
"We must ascend the roots!" Marika shouted as she grabbed her Knight's hand and rushed toward the root that wound beneath the archeway gating the castle and led alongside the corpse of the dragon towards the main path. A few of the priests and strange tree creatures cut down along the way, the two finally arrived with a final jump before the entrance to a hall that led to the Queen's former bed chambers.
Marika looked quieter as she looked into the hall. Memories of children and laughter briefly flashing across her eyes as her hand idly gripped the soft bump that had started to grow in her belly.
She was softly shaken from her memories by her Knight's hand on her shoulder. "Almost there." She whispered. "Just a bit further, and this all comes to an end."
Marika tearfully nodded, drying away those tears. Both began to walk into the court hall just as a wall of fog slowly formed around the entrances after them. The knight gripped to her scythe cautiously as Marika redrew her hammer.
A spirit began to form as Marika felt her hand shake. Standing before them was her first husband, Godfrey. Rather, it was a spirit of him. A memory formed to guard this place. Tall and wielding a massive two handed axe with armor of gold and blues and a massive beast riding on his back in the form of a great lion. His long and wild silver hair stayed away from his eyes thanks to his crown. His face even as a spirit was weathered and heavily aged, yet his body was as powerful and massive as she remembered.
"Godfrey..." She muttered softly.
Her knight stepped forward, scythe drawn in her hand. "She is my queen now." The spirit roared in answer at the declaration and leaped into the air, throwing its massive axe towards them before diving down and crashing with stone cracking force against the floor. Both dove away, but the second crash sent Marika smashing into the wall head first before slumping down.
Her knight briefly panicked, rushing towards her under another swipe and was relieved to find no blood. A concussion maybe. Hopefully it was minor. She turned, smashing a few bombs down as Godfrey's spirit crashed into where they were, getting Marika to a safe spot before emerging into the center of the court hall as her scythe scraped across the floor.
"A monster you once were." The knight turned quietly as she swept her scythe up into a firm grip with the blade pointed at Godfrey's neck. "And a Monster will you die!" Charging towards the spirit as it raised its foot, stomping down to the quaking of stonework. The knight jumped over, slashing at the spirit and tearing a firm cut across his chest as her scythe hooked and ripped off the breastplate.
The spirit grabbed the knight as his armor crashed to the floor, crushing with his hand violently before throwing her across the hall with a bone crunching hit against the wall. Limply sipping from her flask as the spirit re-equipped his axe, she breathed deeply and focused. He was powerful, fast, but all aggression. She could exploit that.
Ducking under the charging swing as it came and split the wall behind her, she ran between his legs as he wrenched it back out and turned with a mighty downward swing that barely missed the rolling knight as she tossed a pair of knives in the savage king's chest. He barely felt the pain, but slowly began to stumble and lose his balance. The poison did work on these spirits. She had just needed to adjust it slightly, but most spirits here were still corporeal. Closer to memories given shape than just phantoms.
He growled dangerously, stomping unevenly across the court hall towards the knight as she gripped onto her hilt. Waiting until he attempted a sweep at her midsection and parried it slightly, dipping under the swing and deflecting the arc across the upper part of her hilt before smacking the already stumbling King off balance and swinging down towards his neck. The slash tore through the spirit about as easily as it should for the first half of his throat. Halfway in, however, she found the beast riding him stop the slash and roar violently that sent air shockwaves that pressed her back on the balls of her feet.
Slowly adjusting his bleeding throat as his beast held it there with a paw. His blood was as gold as the Erdtree itself. The knight gulped, taking in the information for a moment. She didn't have many tools left that could help, and she was running low on space.
"Arntha!!!" She heard Marika shout as a burst of raw fire, a fire the knight beamed at the sight of, splashed over the back of the King and scorched the beast apart with a painful, final roar. Slowly crumbling from the back and fading as the now unaided Godfrey let out a savage cry.
His body stood upright just a little more, axe turned and raised toward Marika just as he felt that second slash on the other side of his neck, and all that remained were the fading glimmers of the Erdtree's power returning his fading spirit home.