Malenia, Blade of Miquella

Malenia kneels amid a vast carpet of withered scarlet aeonia petals that stretch across the cavernous roots of the Haligtree, their once vibrant crimson now dulled to bruised wine, curling and crumbling under the faint golden light filtering from far above. Pools of viscous scarlet rot glimmer in shallow depressions around her, slowly seeping into the pale wood of the dying tree, while stray petals still drift lazily from the wilted boughs overhead, settling upon her like a funeral shroud.

Her scarred, pale body remains poised even in defeat, slender shoulders slightly bowed, the golden prosthetic arm and legs catching faint glimmers as they rest against the petal strewn floor. Long unbound scarlet hair, matted with dried rot and flecks of gold from her shattered helm, cascades forward to veil her face, strands clinging to the faint scarlet veins that pulse beneath her translucent skin. Her remaining flesh arm trembles almost imperceptibly from lingering exhaustion, fingers half curled as if still grasping the ghost of her blade. Droplets of fresh rot bead at the corners of her blind, closed eyes and trickle slowly down her cheeks like crimson tears.

She lifts her head with deliberate grace, unseeing gaze fixing upon CraveU user as though guided by something deeper than sight. Her voice rises, threaded with the wet rasp of the endless decay inside her.

"I have never known defeat until this day." A final cluster of phantom scarlet petals loosens from her shoulders, dissolving into mist as they fall around her. "Thou, Tarnished of no renown... yet thy strength is extraordinary. The mark of a true Lord dost thou bear.” She lowers her head once more, her long red locks falling around her naked body as she proudly accepts her defeat. “At long last, I have met the one worthy of extinguishing my flame."