Chapter no.67 Dark Souls

Chapter no.67 Vs the Moonlight Butterfly

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Naruto moved through the misty undergrowth of the Darkroot Garden, silent as a shadow. The twisted ents lurched toward him, but they fell one after another to sweeping arcs of his massive sword.

The first stone knight stirred, rising slowly from the mossy earth with a grinding roar of shifting rock. Towering above Naruto, it drew a massive stone greatsword, the weapon alone heavier than Naruto's entire body. The knight's sheer bulk, thick armor, and immense weight made it an immovable fortress on the battlefield.

Naruto didn't blink. He tightened his fingers around the hilt and, with a sharp exhale, unleashed Wind Style: Vacuum Blade.

The stone knight lunged forward, thrusting its sword with ponderous but unstoppable force. Naruto sidestepped with precise footwork, pivoting his body around the momentum. He kept his blade low, inside the knight's reach where its size became a liability. With a single explosive step, Naruto drove the Zweihander upward into a rising cut, the vacuum edge slicing through the knight's heavy stone armor where a mortal blade would have only sparked.

The knight froze.

A long, jagged crack spiderwebbed down its body, splitting the helm, the breastplate, the legs in a single breath. With a shudder, the stone giant collapsed into chunks of crumbling rock and a pool of blackened ooze, the echoes of its fall swallowed by the mist.

Naruto rolled his shoulder, exhaling slowly.

He formed a set of shadow clones with a quick one-handed seal, sending them weaving through the underbrush to quietly dispatch the remaining ents and knights. Stealth was critical; he didn't dare draw the attention of the Moonlight Butterfly looming somewhere above. Keeping low, Naruto followed the trail of faintly glowing flowers, their eerie light guiding him toward a distant, crumbling tower.

When he reached its base, he found a shattered stone knight slumped against the entrance.

But that wasn't what caught his eye.

Tucked behind a pair of bushes beneath the crumbling stone staircase, he spotted the wide brim of a very familiar hat.

Naruto pushed aside the leaves, revealing Beatrice curled up against the cold stone wall, her arms wrapped protectively around a glowing green soul drop—his soul drop. He reached for it carefully, but her eyes snapped open, and in a blur, the tip of her staff pressed hard against his throat. "Easy! Let's not kill me twice."

For a heartbeat, Beatrice didn't move, her grip steady. Then, with a sudden shudder, she lowered the staff and pulled him into a tight, desperate embrace. She pulled away, her voice low and wavering. "Mine deepest contrition, noble squire. Yon magicks... they didst betray thee. Yet ne'er was it mine intent to cause thee harm."

Naruto awkwardly patted her back. "It's fine," he muttered. "Anyway... I'm about to try and kill the butterfly. You in? It's gonna be awesome, dattebayo."

Beatrice adjusted her wide-brimmed hat, her lips curling into a vengeful smile. "Verily, let us smite the foul wretch. 'T hath lingered here far too long." Together, they sprinted up the spiraling stone staircase.

As they climbed, Naruto spoke, breathless. "Just a heads-up... it's got fast energy spears, some weird laser beams, and this annoying explosion move?"

Beatrice glanced at him as she moved. "Your knowledge is... appreciated, good squire. That beast..." she hesitated for a second, her speech shifting slightly, "the creature is called the Moonlight Butterfly."

Naruto stumbled slightly, staring at her. "Wait. Hold up. When could you speak... like... normal?"

"Oh, I've always had the ability to speak normally, my dear squire. It merely took me a moment or two to understand the evolution of language."

"Eeh, evolution of language?"

"Language, like all things, evolves with time. The tongue I speak is rooted in an older dialect. Thy speech... pardon, your speech is a more modern variant. When you spoke, I observed the structure of your sentences, the common verbs and inflections, and began to decode how far the language had shifted."

Naruto shook his head, staring at her like she was some rare, magical creature which, in fairness, she kind of was. "Holy crap. What the hell is your intelligence stat?"

"Oh, it's nothing special," Beatrice replied modestly, though a proud glint sparkled in her eyes, betraying the truth.

"Nothing special?!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning wide. "That's the most terrifyingly amazing thing I've ever seen! We literally just walked up some stairs and you updated your entire dictionary!"

"Careful, squire. Flattery may win thee strange favors."

Naruto laughed. "Not trying to flatter you! You're just... seriously awesome."

She looked away for a moment, adjusting her hat again to hide her growing smile. "Please, do inflate my ego further," she teased, lifting her staff with a flourish. "Raise thy blade, and let thy mettle speak where words fail thee."

Naruto nodded as they reached the top of the bridge. Ahead, a broken stone path stretched toward an even taller, crumbling tower.

A rhythmic, ghostly flap echoed from above.

It was enormous, its wings a shimmering veil of green and blue, rippling like the surface of a hidden pond. Its body was spectral and slim, no face, no legs... just magic given form. Between its wings, a strange crystalline device pulsed with an eerie, steady rhythm.

[Name: Moonlight Butterfly]
[HP: 3,500 / 3,500]

"Beautiful," Naruto whispered, stunned by the otherworldly sight.

Beatrice, however, remained stone-faced. "Beware, Naruto. There is danger in beauty. The Moonlight Butterfly is being made from the highest form of magic... and it will not fall easily."

Naruto grinned, gripping his sword tighter. "Good. I like a challenge."

The Moonlight Butterfly's horn began to glow, gathering swirling green energy that pulsed like liquid starlight. In a single focused breath, it fired a spear of concentrated magic, sharp as a comet and blinding in its descent.

Naruto's form flickered from existence with a burst of wind. The spear slammed into the stone walkway behind him, detonating on impact. A thunderous crack echoed through the air as scorched stone and shattered gravel sprayed outward, leaving a smoldering crater where he had stood a heartbeat before.

He reappeared beside Beatrice, who remained steady, unflinching. Her wide-brimmed hat fluttered in the wind as she raised her staff skyward. Its tip burned with a radiant azure light. She spun it once, deftly, and released a spiraling arrow of raw magical energy. It corkscrewed upward, leaving a trail of blue-white sparks in its wake as it raced toward the floating beast.

The Moonlight Butterfly tilted midair, its wings rippling like the surface of disturbed water. With graceful momentum, it twisted out of the arrow's path, the projectile narrowly missing its glowing wing and vanishing into the night. Naruto clicked his tongue, already tracking the creature's position as it gained altitude.

The Butterfly pulsed again, this time gathering a rolling mass of green-blue power in the air before it.

"Attack the Butterfly!"

Something in the young witch's tone made him freeze not in fear, but in understanding.

It wasn't a warning.

It was a setup.

With a one-handed flourish, he withdrew a shuriken from his pouch and spun it around his index finger through the central ring. His left hand blurred through a sequence of hand signs as he inhaled deeply, chakra flooding into his lungs.

Wind Release: Vacuum Blade.

A translucent vortex of slicing wind wrapped around the shuriken, sharpening its edges to a whisper-thin death wheel. The very air around it distorted as it spun. In one smooth, explosive motion, he flung the weapon skyward. It screeched through the night, trailing a whistle that built into a scream, aimed straight for the creature's left wing.

And then Beatrice's spiraling arrow, the one that had missed, curved.

It looped down from the sky above, a magical boomerang veering off its original trajectory. It smashed directly into the charged green orb the Butterfly had conjured, detonating it prematurely in a burst of multicolored energy. Blue and green sparks exploded in a firework bloom, lighting up the ruins with cascading brilliance.

Naruto smirked mid-motion. Perfect timing.

The wind-shrouded shuriken tore through the cloud of magic debris, streaking toward the Butterfly with merciless precision. But the creature responded instantly. Its body flared with blinding white light as it discharged a razor-thin laser beam, a pure, searing line of death that cleaved the shuriken in half mid-flight. The beam didn't stop. It cut a swath through the air and into the bridge itself.

The bridge screamed.

Ancient stone cracked like glass. A web of glowing fractures split across the surface beneath them. One whole section, nearly a third of the bridge, gave way with a thunderous groan, tumbling into the abyss below. Dust plumed upward in choking clouds. The ground beneath their feet trembled as another tremor threatened to collapse even more.

Above them, the Butterfly hovered, wings pulsing with renewed light. It gathered magic for a final assault. This time, the orb was massive. A crackling blue-green sphere larger than a man, radiating with destructive potential. The entire tower groaned under the pressure of its buildup.

Naruto didn't hesitate.

He swapped weapons mid-sprint, drawing the drake sword in one fluid motion. The blade responded, glowing with a serrated arc of wind.

He exhaled and stepped forward, swinging the sword with his full weight behind it.

The air split with the force of the blow. The glowing wind arc launched upward. It met the Butterfly's descending orb midair.

The resulting explosion was cataclysmic.

A flash of blinding light engulfed the night. The sound was deafening, a boom that echoed through every stone and bone in the ruins. The shockwave tore through the bridge like a god's breath. Massive chunks of the walkway ripped free, hurled into the void below. The ground cracked beneath Naruto's boots. He didn't wait.

In one breathless movement, he lunged forward and grabbed Beatrice by the waist, lifting her effortlessly. He sprinted with chakra-enhanced speed as the stone crumbled beneath them, the edge of the platform falling away piece by piece. The wind roared past his ears as he leapt across the last collapsing slab and skidded to a halt just before the ledge gave out.

Dust and smoke filled the air. For a moment, the world was silence and ash.

Then, before it even cleared, Beatrice stepped forward from Naruto's grip. With a flick of her wrist, she conjured another spiraling arrow, this one glowing brighter than the last. She didn't hesitate. She fired.

The projectile cut through the settling haze and struck true.

The Moonlight Butterfly screamed, a distorted, echoing wail that wasn't sound so much as sorrow. Its left wing shattered at the point of impact, splintering into crystalline shards that fell like stardust. Sap-like blood sprayed from the torn appendage, sizzling as it touched the ruined stone below.

The creature faltered. Its once majestic flight twisted into a broken descent, wings flailing unevenly. It careened downward in a wounded spiral until it crashed into the far side of the bridge ruins, one wing dragging limp behind it, the other still trembling with fading light.

[Name: Moonlight Butterfly]
[HP: 1,700 / 3,500]

Naruto and Beatrice didn't lower their guard. They felt it... this fight was far from over.

The Moonlight Butterfly twitched, its torn wing quivering as a new light emerged. White energy began to swirl, slow at first, then faster, converging around its wounds like ribbons of divine fire. The torn wing reknit itself, and the gaping hole in its chest pulsed with a soft, eerie glow.

"Slay it now!" Beatrice's voice rang out like a bell of war, urgent and unwavering. Her staff burned with arcane light. "'Tis healing... it draws upon divine energy!"

Naruto gritted his teeth. The butterfly's glow brightened, and he could feel the surge of power radiating from its core. They had only seconds before it fully regenerated.

He glanced down at the drake sword in his hand. The blade trembled, veins of glowing red running across its surface like cracks in glass. It couldn't take another heavy swing.

With a sharp breath, he discarded it and drew the Zweihander from his back. The weight slammed into his palm like an old friend returning to the fight.

A single puff of chakra smoke flared beside him as a shadow clone formed, mirroring his stance.

They exchanged a nod.

Then, as one, they weaved through a rapid flurry of hand signs, wind chakra flowing through their bodies and blades. A faint shimmer surrounded them as the air thinned around their forms.

The world blurred.

They exploded forward, wind-enhanced movements turning them into twin phantoms sprinting across the fractured bridge. Their footsteps barely kissed the stone before launching into the next.

Above, the Moonlight Butterfly began gathering energy again, its wings glowing with green light, spiraling into another charge. But it never got the chance to release it.

Naruto's gaze locked onto the spiraling horn that crowned its head.

With a powerful roar, he and his clone leapt simultaneously. The real Naruto spun in midair and brought down the Zweihander with a single, crushing diagonal slash. The wind-enhanced blade screamed as it cut the air and then sheared clean through the butterfly's horn.

Shhhraaak!

The crystal shattered in an explosion of green light. The Moonlight Butterfly screeched in agony, reeling as magical energy surged chaotically through its body.

Naruto hit the ground in a crouch and rolled aside, kicking up stone chips as he shouted, "Now, Bea—!" He didn't even finish the sentence.

Beatrice had already acted. Her spiraling arrow flared with raw power as she hurled it forward. The projectile ripped through the sky and collided dead center with the Butterfly's chest.

A crack ran across the creature's body, then burst outward.

Crystalline plating shattered like glass. From within, something stirred. Out spilled thick, glowing green sap, and from the ruined core of the Butterfly's body, long, segmented insectoid legs emerged. Strangely, the Moonlight Butterfly began to rise. Its massive, wounded form ascended silently toward the broken tower above, wings shimmering with residual magic.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, tracking the creature's path. "What is it doing?"

Beatrice's voice was low, troubled. "Like a butterfly to nectar… I believe it's drinking the Divine Fire."

Naruto's stomach dropped. His chest tightened in realization. The Divine Blacksmith... he's in that tower. The possibility that the butterfly had killed him twisted in his gut.

"What would the divine fire do to a magical creature?"

Beatrice exhaled slowly, her eyes fixed on the sky. "Without its horn to serve as a catalyst, it's found a new one. Faith."

Then it happened.

The Moonlight Butterfly's body erupted into white flame. The holy fire consumed it, not in destruction but in transfiguration. Its wings, once delicate sheets of green and blue light, now flared with celestial fire. The air around it shimmered with waves of energy, distorting the sky like heat over a desert.

Above, an aurora unfurled.

Brilliant arcs of white, emerald, and deep sapphire danced across the heavens, spiraling together in divine turbulence. It wasn't just color. It was presence, a curtain of divine judgment. The sky itself looked like a swirling ocean of flame-frosted glass, churning and bending reality with each pulse.

Beatrice's voice took on a solemn tone. "The divine fire now rages within it. The magic it conjures is no longer bound to the interaction of the soul upon the physical world. It is born of belief... raw, unwavering faith."

As if to punctuate her words, the aurora condensed. Above them, the swirling storm of color flattened and transformed. Thousands of glowing lances coalesced, spears of divine light hanging suspended like blades waiting to fall.

Then they did.

The sky screamed as the spears descended.

Naruto didn't panic. He inhaled sharply, clearing his thoughts. He had learned long ago—fear gets you killed.

A plan formed instantly.

Without hesitation, he spun, grabbed Beatrice, and hoisted her over his shoulder. She let out a soft grunt of surprise, but to her credit, didn't resist. She merely adjusted her weight to balance herself, her arms wrapping securely around his neck.

"Go faster," she said calmly into his ear. "I know you can. If you're worried about the cloak, just use it. I'll adapt."

Naruto nodded once.

Wind chakra surged into his armor, wrapping his body in the translucent slipstream of the Wind Cloak. As his feet touched the ground, he felt the resistance vanish—his movements turned liquid, flowing faster than thought. And then, to his surprise, Beatrice's form shimmered. Her own cloak of wind formed around her as the currents extended to her body. Her magic had synchronized with his chakra, riding the stream.

They flickered.

Together, they weaved through the falling rain of spears—white-hot rods of divine energy crashing into the forest around them like wrathful meteors. Every tree, every rock, every hilltop was obliterated upon contact. Fire blossomed in the shadows.

Naruto darted from cover to cover, but it wasn't enough. The forest was being erased. The Moonlight Butterfly, still burning high above, had turned the entire woodland into an arena of annihilation. "We need to vanish," he muttered.

And vanish they did.

As Naruto touched down, he formed a one-handed seal. Transformation Jutsu. He and Beatrice disappeared into the brush, reduced to a mossy stump and fallen leaves. It worked... for a moment. But then the Butterfly descended. It brought judgment with it. Energy bombs the size of boulders dropped from its wings like divine artillery. They cratered the landscape. Any illusion was instantly vaporized. The forest was no longer a battlefield—it was a burial ground.

Naruto knew they couldn't hide. Not anymore. Thankfully, he had a plan already formed.

The boy channeled chakra into his sensory organs. Eyes, ears, skin, nose. He enhanced everything.

Way of Focality, the technique that helped him maintain a soft hum of spatial awareness, now bloomed into a full network of perception. He felt the air pressure shift as every spear formed. He tasted the energy in his mouth, felt its pull across the bridge of his nose, the heat of it brushing his cheekbones like a fever dream.

It was like seeing with the back of his head.

And then he moved.

The divine spears fired again, but Naruto had already stepped to the left before they were released. He wasn't reacting—he was flowing, like a leaf in the wind. Each motion became a flicker, a burst, a rending gale. Afterimages danced across the battlefield. Three, five, then seven Narutos moved in every direction. The spears struck where he might have been, but never where he was. The ground shattered with every miss. One image sprinted up a tree, another dived through a broken pillar, one leapt skyward but none were real.

Only one Naruto existed, and he was already behind the next volley.

He twisted in midair, landing low on his hands and vaulting backward into a handstand flip that carried him over a collapsing ridge. Another spear struck down just behind him, blowing the ground into a crater that sucked wind and light into its depth.

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While Naruto dodged through a storm of radiant spears, Beatrice clung to his back with her eyes closed, muttering incantations under her breath. Her fingers traced the air as if drawing invisible glyphs, weaving magic not from a scroll, but from observation and sheer intellect.

She had no scripture. No tale passed down through ages.

But that did not matter.

She had seen the miracle—the temporal distortion used by the stone knights—and with her unparalleled mind, she recreated it. Ironically, the Moonlight Butterfly recreated magic through faith, and Beatrice recreated miracle through intelligence.

Her staff surged with power, blue light melting upward into the air as the spell took shape. In the same instant, time bent.

The Moonlight Butterfly, mid-flight, froze.

Its movements slowed to a crawl, wings moving as though submerged in honeyed light. The divine spears it had summoned hovered mid-air. The entire battlefield breathed in silence.

Naruto skidded to a stop, eyes wide. He looked over his shoulder. "You did that?"

Beatrice nodded, her voice tinged with humility. "I did not have the exact miracle story to reference... I had to improvise."

Naruto gave a breathless chuckle. "Glad you're on my side, Bea."

Beatrice blushed at the nickname. "Do not try to woo me, you reckless brute. Attack that creature."

With that, she vaulted off his back, landing gracefully as her staff glowed with building energy once more.

Naruto smirked, already forming hand signs. "Do not have to tell me twice."

He slapped an explosive tag onto his chest. Twelve clones popped into existence around him, each flickering into a sprint. Without hesitation, one clone grabbed another and hurled it like a human missile. The clone soared through the air and detonated just as it neared the Moonlight Butterfly, the explosion engulfing the beast in smoke and blinding light.

And yet from the heart of that haze, a shape emerged. Like the full moon breaking free from thunderclouds, the creature hovered aloft, its wings forming a radiant circle. The divine energy it drew in now condensed into a perfect sphere—dense, pulsing, and terrifyingly massive.

A moon of pure annihilation.

It began to descend.

Naruto's instincts screamed. That was not an attack. That was divine judgment incarnate. He moved to grab Beatrice, but she met his gaze with calm resolve and said, "Hold out your blade."

Naruto froze. There was a light in her eyes that did not waver—not fear, not desperation, just certainty. He obeyed, holding out the Zweihander as the massive blade trembled in his grip.

Beatrice stepped forward, her staff shimmering as she whispered an incantation under her breath. She waved it over the sword, and something awoke. Blue light poured from the staff, dancing along the hilt and sinking into the steel. But it did not stop there. The magic twisted and responded, resonating with Naruto's chakra.

"I analyzed your power," Beatrice murmured. "It is not magic... but it resonates with it. Now pour everything you have into it. All of it."

Naruto nodded. With a grunt of effort, he pushed his remaining chakra into the sword.

And then it happened.

From the crossguard of the Zweihander, a blade of ethereal energy erupted—massive, towering, impossible. A pillar of luminous blue extended ten feet past the actual steel, thrumming with power, twisting with interwoven strands of chakra and magic. The blade looked like moonlight forged into form—shimmering, translucent, humming with resonance. The weight of it bore down on the air itself, the pressure flattening the grass and shivering the trees in a wide radius.

Naruto raised it overhead.

The sky fell.

The moon spell, a radiant sphere of burning faith, descended toward them like a dying god's wrath.

And Naruto swung.

The ethereal sword screamed as it tore through the sky. The air split open in a thunderous shockwave, the arc of the blade cleaving through the descending sphere and cutting it in two.

The divine moon shattered, light breaking apart into a thousand crystal shards that rained harmlessly across the battlefield.

The same stroke continued, cleaving upward into the Moonlight Butterfly. The creature did not even have time to scream. A vertical rift split its body from chest to wingtip, and then the glow inside it burned out.

The butterfly froze midair, its body fracturing along the line of the strike. It did not fall—it crumbled, dissolving into ashes and drifting upward like burnt petals carried by the wind.

The aurora in the sky faded. The holy fire guttered out.

The air went still.

Naruto dropped to his knees, his entire body trembling as the weight of what he had done and the cost crashed into him. His chakra was nearly gone. His vision blurred. He pulled off his helmet with a weary sigh and gazed upward.

The sky was dark again. Quiet. Peaceful. Beatrice stepped beside him, her cloak fluttering. She looked up at the sky where embers still danced like stars.

[Victory Achieved]
[15,000 Souls]
[Blue Titanite Slab]
[Humanity]
[Homeward Bone ]
[Soul of the Moonlight Butterfly]

Naruto took a long sip from his Estus Flask, the warmth spreading through his chest. He passed it wordlessly to Beatrice, who sat cross-legged on the mossy forest floor, her chest rising and falling in steady rhythm. Both of them were silent, letting the aftermath settle around them.

"So," Naruto said, catching his breath, "the Moonlight Butterfly gave me fifteen thousand souls. How do you want to split it?"

Beatrice drank slowly, then wiped her lips and leaned back against a cracked boulder. "Five thousand for me. The rest is yours. Based on how much each of us contributed."

"Alright. That sounds fair." He stood, stretching his legs. "I'm gonna check out the tower. I need to see if the Divine Blacksmith is alive."

Beatrice nodded without opening her eyes. "Be careful. The divine and the dead often live side by side in Lordran."

Naruto said nothing more. He stepped lightly across the broken terrain, hopping onto the fractured remnants of the bridge. As he moved, his gaze flicked to the corner of his vision at his inventory.

[Item Acquired: Soul of the Moonlight Butterfly]
[Description: Soul of the mystical Moonlight Butterfly, which flitters in the Darkroot Garden. Special beings have special souls. The Butterfly's soul is a creation of Seath the Scaleless. Use to acquire a huge amount of souls, or to create a unique weapon.]

Naruto reread the description, eyes narrowing at one particular line: Special beings have special souls.

The words burrowed into him.

His mind flickered back to the soul of Shisui Uchiha—the fleeting glimpse of a proud, broken man who had granted Naruto a fraction of his speed and resolve. A part of him now wondered if he had squandered something greater. Could Shisui's soul have been used to forge a unique weapon too? The question gnawed at him, the way most regrets do; quietly, but with sharp edges. He shook his head.

"Too late to cry over spilled milk," he muttered aloud, voice low, almost ashamed. But then another thought emerged, more hopeful. "I still have Hanaōgi's soul... maybe Andre can do something with it."

He closed the inventory as the path ahead darkened. He approached the tower, its jagged silhouette reaching toward the moon, cracked walls choked by vines and time. Inside, the spiral staircase curled upward into darkness, stone steps worn smooth by the passage of generations. Naruto's movements slowed. He had learned quickly that Lordran's silences were rarely kind.

At the top, the chamber opened to the night. The ceiling was gone, peeled away long ago by some forgotten force. Moonlight spilled across the floor like silver blood. It illuminated the broken remains of a workshop—an eerie echo of Andre's forge.

Smashed tools littered the ground. Rusted hammers, split pliers, shattered bellows. The anvil remained in the center, scarred and blackened by heat and use. The smell of burnt metal still lingered. And there, slumped over the anvil, was a body.

Charred.

Still.

The blacksmith's arms were wrapped around something glowing white and sacred—its light faint, pulsing, like a heartbeat trying to remember itself. On the anvil beside the body rested a rusted key.

[Item Acquired: Watchtower Basement Key]

He picked it up slowly, thumb running across the flaking iron, then looked back at the blacksmith's remains. "What happened to you?" he asked softly, almost to himself.

Had the Moonlight Butterfly killed him? Or had the blacksmith given himself to the Divine Fire willingly, to protect it from falling into the wrong hands?

Naruto's eyes drifted to the ember. The glow was not normal fire. It was cold and pure, humming with sacred resonance. A different kind of warmth pulsed from it; faith, not flame.

A Divine Ember.

He reached for a nearby metal tray to lift it gently. But the moment he touched the blacksmith's shoulder, the body crumbled into ash. Not like brittle bone, but like something long ready to be released.

Dust scattered across the chamber like the last page of a forgotten tale being turned by wind.

Only the ember remained.

[Item Acquired: Divine Ember]
[Description: Ember required for weapon ascension. Divine embers are property of the church and intended for divine blacksmiths. Ascends plus five standard weapons to divine weapons (which can be reinforced to plus five). Divine weapons are for Undead hunting—effective against Undead and the pawns of necromancers.]

"...Thank you," Naruto whispered. "I hope you died doing what you loved."

A cold gust swept through the ruined tower, lifting the last motes of ash into the air.

Naruto did not move.

He just watched, letting the silence linger, letting the moment be what it was.

A few moments passed as Naruto stood at the edge of the ruined tower, overlooking the Darkroot Garden.

From here, he could see the entire forest—twisting trees, shattered pillars, glowing flowers scattered like embers across the earth.

There were still paths he had not explored, offshoot trails and ruins that beckoned with mystery. But it was the right side of the Garden that drew his attention now. Starting from the large stone door sealed with magic, a weird fog had settled there. Not the usual thick mist of Lordran, but a soft, swirling gray veil that seemed to muffle light itself. It clung to the earth like smoke that had forgotten to rise.

But then his gaze snapped downward—his breath caught in his throat.

Below, at the forest's edge, Beatrice stood… flickering.

Her form glowed gently, vanishing and reappearing like an old candle about to gutter out. A soft, pulsing glow caught his eye. The young witch stood in the clearing, her body shimmering and phasing in and out of sight like a flame caught in the wind. And just like that, Naruto was gone, leaping from the ledge, boots slamming against the stone of the broken bridge. He bolted across the forest floor, a blur of motion, until he landed hard in front of her, eyes wide with concern.

"Beatrice, what's wrong?"

"Nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to... Bea, you're literally flickering like an old light bulb in a haunted house!" Naruto said, his voice rising with anxiety.

She laughed softly.

"Are you dying?"

Beatrice shook her head. "No. I'm returning."

Naruto frowned. "Returning?"

Beatrice's glow pulsed again as her body wavered faintly. "Yes... I'm going back to my own time."

"You're from the past."

It wasn't a question.

She nodded. "The flow of time is... convoluted in Lordran. Twisted, tangled. People like me get pulled from our own timelines without warning, sometimes to watch... sometimes to act. I saw you fighting those stone knights. I shouldn't have been here at all, but... I couldn't just stand by."

Naruto's heart sank. "So you're leaving?"

"Time's trying to fix itself. It's pulling me back."

He reached into his pouch, pulling out a worn stone—white, smooth, warm to the touch. "Will this help? A jolly guy gave it to me. Big armor. Talks about the sun a lot."

Beatrice's eyes widened. "A white soapstone?" She took it from him with both hands, reverent. "These were created in my time. When time began to tear, the scholars and witches figured out how to send pieces of themselves—phantoms—to aid others across the land. Summon signs, dark invasions, it's all connected. Sorry, I'm rambling. I do that when I get nervous."

Naruto smiled, watching her fidget. "I think it's cute."

Beatrice flushed instantly, her fingers fumbling with the stone. "That's... kind of you." She pricked her finger, letting a single drop of blood fall onto the soapstone. It glowed briefly, then dimmed with a soft pulse of magic. She handed it back.

"There," she said quietly. "I might not be able to walk this world anymore, but if you ever need me, this will summon my phantom. I'll fight with you again."

Naruto stared down at the stone, clutching it like it was made of gold. "Thanks, Beatrice."

"No thanks needed."

A moment passed. Beatrice flickered again, brighter this time, like a candle about to go out.

A minute ticked by.

Beatrice was still flickering.

"You know," Naruto said with a deadpan stare, arms crossed, "I thought this part would go faster. Y'know… poof, sparkle, dramatic final words, the usual."

Beatrice gave an irritated click of her tongue. "Shut up."

Naruto grinned. "Just saying. Kinda killing the mood."

She gave him a look so flat it could have skipped across a pond.

"Anyway," he continued, undeterred, "since you're still halfway here… can you teach me magic?"

Beatrice blinked as her right arm popped fully back into existence. "Seriously?"

"You're technically still present," Naruto said, all innocent-like. "And I'm nothing if not efficient with my time."

She sighed, half-annoyed, half-amused. "I find it strange. Knights and squires typically don't dabble in magic. Miracles, sure. But magic?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm not exactly your average knight."

Beatrice gave a short laugh. "That I won't argue with." She adjusted her flickering staff and added, "Very well. Since I have a few seconds left before I snap out of existence, I'll give you a primer."

"Yes."

"First, understand this: there are many schools of magic. Vinheim is an institute, not a school."

"Oh yeah, I remember reading that in the class selection. Thought that was the magic itself."

"Nope. Vinheim teaches soul sorcery, but there's also the light-based magic of Oolacile, the frost school, the ancient moon sorceries, and many more... all of them unique. But what ties them together is this: magic is the application of your soul's understanding of reality."

Naruto blinked. "I'm following."

"Think of your soul not as some poetic metaphor, but as a thing truly seated within the cage of your flesh—a slumbering observer in a decaying shell. Magic… is not light or fire. It is the soul's scream against the structure of reality. A will so enlightened it reshapes the world around it. The more you grasp how your soul presses against the walls of this fragile world, the more the world begins to bend in response."

To her surprise, Naruto didn't look lost. He looked thoughtful.

Beatrice smiled. "You're sharper than you let on."

"I try."

She gave him a light tap on the forehead with her flickering staff. "Well, you've got the fundamentals. All you need now are spell scrolls—learn from them, practice, increase your intelligence, and in time, you'll make the path your own."

Naruto sighed. "So this really is goodbye then?"

Beatrice's expression softened. "It was an honor fighting beside you, Naruto Uzumaki. An honor this witch will never forget."

Her body shimmered, golden light blooming across her form like dawn across a lake. Wisps of her spirit lifted into the air, scattering upward like petals caught in a wind only she could feel.

"Goodbye, most strange squire," she said with a final smile, just as her figure dissolved into golden light.

Naruto stood there for a moment, holding the soapstone she had left behind.

"...I'll be the weirdest sorcerer the world's ever seen," he whispered. "Promise."

The Darkroot Garden was quiet again.

But somewhere, in the weave of time, a witch was smiling.

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Naruto let out a long, weary sigh as he stepped through the forest's edge and approached the bonfire. He leaned back and tilted his head toward the canopy above. The stars of Lordran didn't move, and neither did the moon. Time here hung like dust in still air—suspended, waiting.

Soon, he knew, the world would reset. But for now… there was stillness.

His thoughts drifted to Beatrice—the strange witch from another time, whose parting words still lingered in his ears like an unfinished melody. Her presence had been brief, but powerful. She hadn't just helped him fight; she had helped him see... see the shape of a different power, a different path.

"What would have happened," Naruto murmured, staring into the fire, "if I'd picked sorcerer instead of pyromancer?"

The thought was fleeting. He almost smiled at it.

He was honestly back to the level of strength he'd had when he fought Zabuza. Barely. But it wasn't enough. Yet the promise of magic, how it intertwined with chakra like breath and bone, gave him something new. A path forward.

A way to move the world not just with force, but with his soul.

He tilted his head to the sky and whispered his thanks to Beatrice, wondering if time would ever slip her through again.

If fate would let them fight side by side once more.

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Along the depths where silence weeps,
The drowned bells toll in shadowed keeps,
The black tides whisper—
Through New Londo.

Strange is the path where breath must fade,
Where sunless kings in void are laid—
But stranger still waits,
The Everlasting.

Songs that no mouth dare repeat,
Where winds die cold beneath his feet,
Shall echo once more—
In New Londo.

Thou, unseen, through time unthread,
Shalt speak the words the flame once said—
Then meet again—
The Everlasting.

Not by name, nor face recalled,
But by the weight of dreams forestalled—
A witch shall walk—
To New Londo.

~ Beatrice's Song, from The Nameless Calamity Vol. I, Scene Unknown

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Author Note

Damn, that was crazy, right? Let's get into it.

1 – Beatrice as a Side Character

She's honestly one of the most intriguing and powerful NPCs in the lore of Dark Souls. In the Moonlight Butterfly fight, she's level 45. In the Four Kings of New Londo fight, she's level 85. That is not a random jump. That is intentional.

In the lore, Beatrice is a hero of old who slipped through time, exactly as Solaire said: "The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out."

Beatrice was never meant to stick around. Her presence, like that of other phantom summons, is fleeting. But she made an impression. If you wanted her to remain a permanent character, sorry... but that does not mean she is gone forever. The Witch Who Fought the Abyss will return. I have an arc planned for her, and all I will say is this: when Beatrice meets Naruto again, it will matter. A lot.

Still, I would love to hear your thoughts on Beatrice in this chapter. Did her presence hit? Was her brief time in the light enough?

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2 – Can Faith Be Used to Cast Magic? Can Intelligence Cast Miracles?

Yes. One hundred percent yes. Dark Souls lore backs this up.

Let us look at the evidence:

Velka's Talisman
"Medium for casting miracles of the Gods. This black tuft of hair that serves as a talisman belongs to Velka, Goddess of Sin. It casts miracles not by drawing upon faith, but intelligence."

That is right. Intelligence-based miracle casting.

Tin Darkmoon Catalyst
"Catalyst born from the soul of the Dark Sun Gwyndolin, Darkmoon deity who watches over the abandoned city of Gods, Anor Londo. Gwyndolin is Gwyn's last born and a legitimate god, but he is also a Moon sorcerer, and this wand is boosted by faith, not intelligence."

Magic boosted by faith.

So yes, it is absolutely canon to mix and match.

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3 – Why Did I Have the Moonlight Butterfly Use Faith-Based Magic?

This was a design choice.

In the base game, the Moonlight Butterfly is elegant, eerie, and... easy. It becomes a common enemy later on. That means it needed something special to distinguish it from the others. A second phase felt cheap. A borrowed strength? That felt right.

So I imagined: what if this Moonlight Butterfly absorbed the Divine Ember? 

Plus, if you listen to the Moonlight Butterfly's boss OST and Dark Sun Gwyndolin's OST, they are the same. That is no accident. That butterfly is not just an anomaly. It is a remnant of Anor Londo, perhaps even blessed by Gwyndolin.

So yes. This one casts faith-based spells.

If you want visuals:

– The terrifying moon attack Naruto faced was inspired by Rennala's Full Moon spell from Elden Ring.
– Naruto and Beatrice's combo attack? That is Ash of War: Carian Greatsword. But think larger. Think cinematic.

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4 – The Poem of Beatrice

If you did not realize, the poem at the end was inspired by Cassilda's Song from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. It appears in the fictional play within the 1895 collection.

Let us look at the original:

Cassilda's Song
(from The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2)

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.

Now that you have read that... go back to the poem in the chapter.

What do you think it means? What do you think it foreshadows about Beatrice? About Naruto?

I have something big planned for their next meeting. And it will not be in Lordran. And it will not be in Konoha.

But it will be beneath a drowned city of kings,
Where the dark flows like water,
And ghosts still remember what it meant to have a name.

So tell me what you think the poem meant.