Lucian stood in the air, quietly watching the Bloodfiends below turn to ash beneath the blazing sun.
Once he confirmed there were no remaining vessels nearby for the Formless Mother's power, he immediately withdrew the strength stored within the Great Rune.
Better to conserve what he could for future battles.
The solar power inside that Great Rune had all been stored during the last time he possessed infinite focus.
Normally, Lucian did not have nearly enough magic to sustain the sun at full output.
If he used too much of it, even he would feel reluctant.
After all, this was a true trump card. If the opponent had not been the Formless Mother, Lucian would never have opened with such an ultimate move.
He put away the Great Rune, very satisfied with the role it had played.
The Formless Mother was, after all, an Outer God. Lucian did not dare show the slightest carelessness.
He had to sever Her connection to the Lands Between immediately and prevent Her power from descending.
But it was impossible to rely on cheat-like invincibility every time he faced Her.
Using the Great Rune this way was equivalent to splitting one instance of infinite focus into multiple uses, each time letting him briefly unleash the output of infinite magic.
Lucian descended from the sky and landed within the ruins occupied by the Bloodfiends.
There was no other life in these ruins, only bones scattered everywhere.
In some places were blood-soaked cursed pools, beside which bloomed sinister red flowers.
Their petals were thick and full, gorged on blood, unnaturally beautiful.
They resembled Bloodroses.
[Bloodfiend's Hexer Blossom]
That was the name displayed before Lucian's eyes.
He looked at the skeletons stripped of every trace of flesh.
Though only bones remained, the omen horns scattered across the ground made their former identities obvious, Hornsent.
Lucian stroked his chin.
The architecture of this ruined settlement was identical to that of the Hornsent, and the sheer number of remains proved that many of them had once lived here.
But now there was not a single Hornsent left. Not even Shadow Hornsent.
Had they all been eaten?
Did these bizarre creatures also bear hatred toward the Hornsent?
Not necessarily. Maybe they simply treated them as food.
Lucian wandered through the town, searching for anything valuable.
After a while, he found only a talisman in a small room.
It was called Outer God Heirloom. Upon it was carved the corpse of a Hornsent ancestor, with several Hornsent kneeling in worship below.
The talisman had been casually tossed beside a Hornsent skeleton.
To the Hornsent, it was an important record of legend.
To the Bloodfiends, it was just something inedible, no different from a stone.
Lucian picked up the talisman and felt the power lingering within it.
Like the other "Heirloom" talismans, this one enhanced a certain attribute.
And the attribute it raised was Arcane.
Arcane was the stat that determined one's connection to external powers. Only with sufficient Arcane could one perceive the existence of Outer Gods.
Lucian stored the talisman away and began pondering a question.
How exactly were these "Heirloom" talismans made?
Talismans varied wildly in both power and rarity.
The rare ones, like Marika's Scarseal, Radagon's Scarseal, and the Soreseals, were incredibly scarce and possessed potent effects.
The common ones, like the Crusade Insignia, could be granted to people of status who took part in holy wars.
Up to now, Lucian had never encountered anyone who actually crafted talismans, so he had no idea how they were made.
Were they forged by preserving power from the very moment a legend was witnessed?
He wondered when someone might one day knead a talisman out of his deeds.
After thoroughly searching the ruins, Lucian left.
Before departing the Land of Shadow, there was still one more place he wanted to visit.
When he and Melina had first entered this land, they had explored most of the Gravesite Plain.
But one final section of that region still remained untouched.
Earlier, after exploring the scorched ruins where the Shadow Hornsent roamed, Torrent had led them to search for spirit ash.
At the edge of the cliff where they found it, Lucian had spotted a structure far below.
It was a place marked on the map as the Church of Consolation.
There seemed to be a camp stationed there, inhabited even now.
At the time, Lucian had not known who those people were. Out of caution, he chose not to investigate and instead went first to find Leda and the others.
But after encountering the Fire Knight and learning more about the Crusade, many missing pieces had fallen into place.
Lucian was now certain, it was a garrison belonging to Messmer, his brother-in-law.
That Fire Knight had fled too quickly last time. Lucian never got the chance to question him properly.
If the man had stayed, Lucian had even intended to reveal his relationship with Melina and have him lead the way to Messmer.
So this time, Lucian planned to go there himself.
He was deeply concerned by the fact that every statue of Marika in the Land of Shadow had been decapitated.
What was Messmer thinking now?
Did he still support Marika as steadfastly as before?
And what was his attitude toward Melina, his younger sister?
Since it was someone else's territory, barging straight into their headquarters would be rude.
Lucian flew directly toward the church and soon arrived above it.
It was a relatively well-preserved church. Behind it, a waterfall spilled down the cliffside, gathering into a pool nearby.
A small camp had been set up beside the water, where soldiers sat listlessly.
Even stranger, their military banner was badly tattered, with no one bothering to tend to it.
Lucian landed at the church entrance.
Glancing left and right, he suddenly realized there were no guards posted outside.
No one was there to ask his business, so he simply walked inside to see if he could find the officer in charge.
The good news: the moment he entered, he found exactly the person he was looking for.
A knight clad in black and gold stood just inside the doorway, wielding a giant hammer and a shield as large as a door.
Judging by that appearance alone, he was clearly a high-ranking knight of considerable status.
The bad news: before Lucian could speak, the knight roared.
"Intruder!"
And so, the instant Lucian stepped into the church, a massive hammer came crashing down in front of him, shattering the ground into a web of cracks.
Lucian leapt backward, avoiding the heavy strike.
But the man clearly had no intention of letting him retreat so easily.
He did not immediately lift the hammer from the ground. Instead, he sank lower and released power once more.
Golden light ignited across the hammer's surface, pouring magic into the earth below.
A flash of golden light burst forth.
The cracks in the ground instantly spread toward Lucian, and radiant holy light erupted from the fissures.
At that moment, aided by the glow, the opposing knight finally got a clear look at Lucian's face in the dim church.
The instant he saw him, the knight cried out in shock:
"A Tarnished!"
"Soldiers! To battle!"
Lucian touched his face and suddenly remembered that the last time he met the old Hornsent crone, he had deliberately hidden the blessing in his eyes.
Afterward, since there had been no need for it, he had forgotten to restore it.
He never particularly cared whether he was Tarnished or blessed anyway.
Still, these people seemed deeply fixated on the idea of the Tarnished.
This was already the second time Lucian had been treated as an enemy because of that identity.
At least now he could confirm one thing:
The man before him was definitely one of Messmer's soldiers.
Apparently, aside from Messmer's forces, no one else in the Land of Shadow cared much about Tarnished at all.
The knight had already called for reinforcements, but Lucian was in no hurry. Instead, he calmly studied the man before him.
Now that he had the chance, he examined the knight carefully.
The man wore heavy black armor adorned with golden engravings.
Though the armor itself looked imposing, it somehow seemed light compared to the monstrous weapons in his hands.
In one hand he held a black iron warhammer so enormous it made even the Giant-Crusher look modest.
In the other, he carried a massive asymmetrical greatshield of black iron trimmed in gold.
The shield looked as though half of a fortress gate had simply been torn off and repurposed.
And this knight, clearly a veteran of the crusade, was massive himself.
He stood well over two and a half meters tall.
That was why those absurdly oversized weapons looked strangely natural in his grip.
Seeing this, Lucian became more convinced of his earlier theory.
Just like the description of the Giant-Crusher suggested, humans of ancient times in the Lands Between were generally stronger.
Both in size and in physical power.
All he needed now was to compare ordinary soldiers of this era to the humans of the modern Lands Between, and he could settle the matter completely.
Most likely, the setting really was the older, the stronger.
Lucian blinked while facing the knight.
Some time had already passed since the man called for soldiers.
And less than ten meters away was a camp with plenty of troops stationed there.
But...
Only three soldiers had come running.
Lucian glanced at the three men, each taller than modern humans of the Lands Between, then looked back at their commanding knight and shrugged.
Seems the crusade veterans weren't in great shape either.
The knight never took his eyes off Lucian, interpreting that shrug as mockery.
He raised the great hammer high and charged again.
Lucian did not strike seriously. He merely sidestepped the hammer and kicked the knight's greatshield.
Since these were technically his brother-in-law's men, better not kill them.
The knight lowered his stance and braced behind the shield, slamming it into the floor to meet the force with the strength he was proud of.
Then he suddenly realized that strength meant nothing.
He was kicked backward several steps, unable to resist at all.
The three nearby soldiers saw their commander driven back and immediately stepped forward.
One, wielding a double-headed axe, rushed Lucian and swung repeatedly to block any pursuit.
The other two thrust war spears through the openings in their comrade's attacks with practiced precision.
Lucian strolled through the three-man assault as though taking a walk in a garden.
The dense barrage could not so much as brush the hem of his clothing.
Looking at the knight who had regained his footing, Lucian smiled.
"No need to be so hasty."
"Though I am indeed what you call Tarnished…"
"But if we're being technical, I'm the most legitimate heir to the Erdtree in the Lands Between."
The black-armored knight across from him erupted in anger.
"You Tarnished Mongrel, what are you sa—?!"
He stopped halfway through the sentence, as though someone had seized his throat.
Because the invader standing before him suddenly had golden light blazing in his eyes.
That bright golden radiance could only be one thing'
The blessing of gold.
The knight could not believe it. He assumed it must be some trick.
But while he was still trying to understand it, two different Great Runes appeared before Lucian.
One carried pure golden power.
The other radiated an unfamiliar warmth.
The black knight fell silent.
The Land of Shadow had been isolated from the Lands Between for far too long. He knew nothing of the Shattering.
And because his rank was insufficient, he did not understand the relationship between Great Runes and the Elden Ring.
But his faith was enough to tell him this:
The man before him had an extraordinary connection to the Erdtree.
As he hesitated, Lucian spoke again.
"And beyond that, my partner is Queen Marika's daughter, Melina."
Those words became the final straw that broke the black knight's resistance.
The expression beneath his helmet turned strange.
Then he slowly lowered his hammer and shield.
He waved a hand, and the nearby soldiers also lowered their weapons.
These soldiers had long since lost their minds. They showed no reaction at all to such explosive news.
The black knight saw it and could only sigh inwardly.
Truthfully, even he himself was only barely holding together.
That horrific crusade had been nothing honorable.
It had been slaughter.
The massacre had stained them with a foul odor that would never wash away.
Was that stench the blood splashed upon them from killing the defiled?
Or was it the smell of their own souls rotting after endless slaughter?
It no longer mattered.
As long as the holy war ended, it had all been worth it.
But afterward, they themselves were exiled by the very Erdtree they worshiped.
And all of it was because of Messmer.
He had betrayed Queen Marika.
Betrayed the Erdtree.
He had cut the heads from every statue of Queen Marika.
Because of that betrayal, this land had been abandoned and become a truly god-forsaken place.
In the end, even the commander of the Black Knights had uncovered the true nature of the "evil serpent" hidden beneath Messmer's Winged Serpents.
Under the leadership of the commander and vice-commander, they rallied most of the Black Knights and a sizable army of soldiers.
To preserve the rightful orthodoxy of the Erdtree, they declared war on Messmer.
Unfortunately...
They lost.
The commander and vice-commander were imprisoned and executed.
The rest suffered catastrophic casualties.
Yet unexpectedly, Messmer still accepted the defeated remnants.
And several forces that refused to return were not hunted down.
That was why this detachment now lingered behind the Hornsent ruins.
But now...
A new hope had appeared before him.
If it was the Lady Melina spoken of only in rumor...
Then the man before him truly was the rightful heir of the Erdtree.
At the very least, he was better than that evil serpent.
The black knight made his decision instantly.
He dropped to one knee.
"Please forgive my earlier disrespect!"
"And please allow me... to offer you my loyalty!"
Lucian stared at the kneeling knight, opened his mouth—
and had absolutely no idea what to say.
Why was this going in a completely different direction than he expected?