[Nevermore] 2 – Dreamscape

Going from being crushed under the carcass of the Grim to a hauntingly dark forest was incredibly disorienting. I was standing upon a circular marble platform with a spooky forest surrounding me from all sides; before me sat three old marble archways with strange symbols floating in the air in the middle of the archways.

On the first archway was a symbol of a strange giant golden tree.

On the second archway was a symbol of a blood-red moon.

On the third and last archway was a symbol of a strange dark circle that looked to be on fire.

Strangely enough, when my gaze wandered over an archway, I'd gotten a feeling that went along with it.

The archway with the golden tree gave me the vibe of something dignified that was shattered and slowly corrupted. The one with the intact bloody moon gave me terrifying chills and a foreboding sense of horror. I felt like I was being watched by something unimaginable. The last one gave me a sense of encroaching darkness on the light.

I felt a strange...allure from the Archways, and before I even realized it, I was standing before the archway with the floating golden tree, reaching out to touch its beautiful branches. Just as my hand reached out, I got a handle of myself, but by then, it was too late, as the tip of my finger brushed against the golden bark.

In an instant, the golden tree flashed with fantastic brilliance, momentarily blinding me and lighting up my surroundings with an intense light.

With a cough, I collapsed to my knees, struggling to breathe as I felt as if the wind was knocked out of me.

[CHAPEL OF ANTICIPATION] [#1]

When I regained my vision, I squinted as my surroundings changed once again.

Coughing as a layer of dust entered my lungs, I covered my mouth as a terrible stench invaded my nostrils. My eyes didn't take long to notice the source. A corpse.

My eyes bulged, and before I could even stop it, bile rose up, and I proceeded to vomit all over the floor. I was dry-heaving as I got it out of my system, my skin much paler, so I wiped my mouth and backed up, feeling a bit weak. I only glanced at the corpse for a moment, but the image was vividly repeating in my head.

Turning to give a small look, I regretted it.

The corpse was of a human, their skin slowly decaying as what looked like maggots and flies buzzed around the corpse. It was not clear what happened to them, but from here, I could see a strange floating flame in the air before the corpse. Every instinct in my body told me to reach out and take it that I'd need it, but I was afraid of even coming close to the decaying corpse of what looked to be a priest in what were once white robes.

I hesitantly got closer and closer until I could see what floated at the center of the flame...a strange...finger? I don't know whether it was because of instinct or because I thought this was a crazy dream, but I reached for the finger, finding the golden flame that surrounded it felt...soothing to the touch. As my hands wrapped around the finger, the flame suddenly extinguished, startling me and making me jump.

Slowly backing away from the corpse, my eyes looked around the strange church I found myself in while I half handily collapsed my shield into its sheathe and withdrew Crocea Mors, keeping it in my left hand where I could draw it if something attacked me.

It looked...strange. Nothing like the Churchs of the Brother Gods at home; instead, it seemed to portray a...woman? 

Shaking my head, I turned around and crept past the corpse to the front double doors of the church and tried to push them open, only to find they were cumbersome. I heaved and, with all my strength, pushed the two doors open, my arms shaking with the effort as a light momentarily blinded me.

When I got a good look at what was on the other side of the doors, I froze. Even from here, I could see a titanic golden tree that looked to be dozens of miles away. The tree was mesmerizing. Its image bore into my head, and every single detail I could make out from here was ingrained in my mind. 

It was beautiful.

Shaking my head, I chalked it up as it was a vivid dream and decided to look around. As much as I wanted to see the tree up close, I was curious about the church.

Stepping out, I noticed that the Church seemed to have been built upon a cliff overlooking what looked to be a small ravine. Looking to my left, I saw a small passage down some stairs leading to what looked like a courtyard in the distance with a statue of that mysterious woman, but that's not what I focused on. Instead, I noticed the locked gate with some stairs leading to what might have been the second floor of the church.

My eyes drifted to the rather apparent lock on the gate and to Crocea Mors, which I held in my left hand.

Letting out a breath of air, I drew Crocea Mors and stepped forward. With a swing of the sword, I broke the lock in half. Crocea Mors was a sword of extreme durability. My Great-Great Grandfather forged the sword to withstand the full force of any Grimm that took a swing at it or the shield, and for how long it had been sitting in the attic, it never lost its sharp edge. 

Opening the gate, I headed up the stairs, finding that there wasn't much of a second floor to the Church. However, I did find two more of those strange flames. One in a chest and the other on the balcony. Strangely, inside the two flames were pouches of weird-looking ash mixed with golden grains of either sand or gold.

Not knowing what they were for but thinking they were special in some way, I kept hold of the two pouches, strapping them to my waist where they hung side by side on my left.

With nowhere else to go, I started heading towards the courtyard with the statue of the lady, my eyes glancing towards the fantastic land beyond this...little island I found myself upon. This was the most vivid dream I think I have ever had, and it was so strange. Why was I picturing this unknown woman? What was with the Golden Tree? Why a church? 

As I stepped into the courtyard, I noticed a strange...golden fog that rolled strangely in place between the arches of a passageway on the right of the courtyard. As I neared the strange golden fog wall, I heard a hair-raising screech as from my left, I saw a monstrosity leap from somewhere unseen from below over the statue and directly into the courtyard, making the ground rumble and shake from its landing, sending me to my the ground as I was unable to stay balanced and standing.

As I stumbled back onto my feet, I was forced to roll out of the way as the hulking monstrosity of mismatched limbs and hands grafted along the back of its body. It had four arms, two armed with ornate greatswords and the other two with a large ornate great shield.

Slowly backing away from the monstrosity, I looked into its blazing golden eyes that bored into my soul. With each step I took away from the living nightmare, it stepped forward with its many legs.

Just as I turned around and was preparing to run for it, the legs of the monster tensed, and it flew forward like a living missile, within a blink of an eye, one of its swords was raised high above me, and with a flash, I felt nothing.

[YOU HAVE DIED]

...

[#1] - If you've ever played the game enough times, you'd by now have recognized what the game is; that's right, it's Elden Ring. It shouldn't be hard to realize what the other two archways signified. Some fair warning: the games were relatively easy compared to what the character's strengths were in relative to the actual lore, so Jaune will not be facing the same dangers as we players did; he'll be fighting against literal Demi-Gods with power that matched their status, as you'll soon come to see. This change will affect everything and make it more suited to the lore. After all, how else will Jaune get gud? He is but a normal Tarnished now, but that will change. 

If you are curious about what kind of build I have in mind for Jaune's case, In that case, the answer is simple: I plan on making him go the Faith route along with general magic and might, as this is an AU Elden Ring. Basically, due to the change in the strength of characters following lore, I should have more leeway with how much stronger Jaune can become compared to the player character of Elden Ring.