Elden Lord of Cinders

The Divine Tower of Liurnia of the Lakes — or more precisely, the Carian Study Hall that stands before it.

After placing the inverted statue on the desk, the entire study hall was flipped upside down by magic.

Lloyd entered through a small door, jumped down onto what had once been the ceiling, walked a short distance forward, and stepped out of the vaulted archway into a vast inverted space.

It was as if a castle had been turned upside down—the floor was above his head, while beneath his feet stretched the ceiling and its arches. The terrain was bizarre, full of precarious platforms like those schoolyard games of jumping across blocks after class.

In the very center of the space floated a pitch-black fragment.

From within it pulsed faint, familiar fluctuations.

The fluctuations of Crystal Sorcery.

The fragment hovered in the air, not guided by Alice, but under the influence of another force. It was slowly unraveling and expanding on its own. The change was so gradual that it would go unnoticed unless one observed for a long time.

But once Lloyd appeared, the fragment seemed to react.

With a violent tremor, it was as if something had latched onto its edge, and a surge of crystalline energy burst outward.

The energy quickly condensed into something Lloyd recognized.

[Glintstone Crystal Sage]

A withered humanoid figure with the eyeless face of an undead. It wore a gray robe, and atop its head rested an enormous sorcerer's hat, nearly the size of a man.

Unlike the original Crystal Sage, however, this one was not only capable of Crystal Sorceries, but its body and robes were covered in a layer of blue-white crystals.

Exposed parts of its body jutted with scale-like protrusions, and from its back extended a twisted, tail-like growth resembling that of a dragon, also encrusted with crystals.

The moment it appeared, it raised its staff without a word and fired a Crystal Soul Spear straight at Lloyd.

Lloyd dodged, but the Sage immediately swung its staff again, conjuring over a dozen crystalline orbs that floated toward him, homing relentlessly.

Their speed wasn't fast, and since Lloyd was at a distance, it took them a while to drift into his range.

And then...

Comet Azur blasted forth at the same time.

Boom, boom, boom—

With the homing crystal masses on one side and the soul stream directly ahead, every route of escape was sealed. No matter which way he moved, he would take hits.

But the real problem wasn't even that.

What made it worse was Lloyd's sudden realization, just as he prepared to dodge: the entire place was made up of narrow, precarious drops.

Forget dodging—even walking normally could mean a misstep into a fatal fall. And now...

After evading the Soul Stream but taking a few hits from the tracking crystals, Lloyd looked toward the distant Crystal Sage, gauging the terrain and the distance. The corner of his eye twitched.

To throw this kind of enemy into terrain like this... it was practically spiteful.

And as that thought crossed his mind, something even more spiteful appeared.

The Sage swung its staff again, conjuring fresh sorcery.

This time it wasn't homing crystals, nor the roaring Comet Azur, but a summoning spell.

To be precise, a spell to summon a giant shrimp.

Under Lloyd's watchful eye, after the Sage finished casting, a spectral Crystallian Shrimp appeared along the path ahead. It snapped its claws at him before spitting out a soul cannon.

Bang—

Lloyd's face darkened.

But he couldn't really complain.

The Sage and shrimp weren't overly strong. If one knew this setup in advance and prepared properly, getting past them wouldn't be too difficult.

You could call this encounter cruel—an anti-player, anti-human placement. But it was still reasonable, carefully tuned to the very edge of Lloyd's laws.

With his main strength, killing the two would be trivial.

But doing so would feel like conceding defeat to that wretch hidden within the fragment, and that left Lloyd sour.

On the other hand, playing by its rules was simply disgusting...

Just then, a golden effigy lit up on the ground.

Switching to the Marionette's Staff with Bloodhound's Step, he used the skill's burst of speed to evade both the soul cannon and Comet Azur, darting toward the golden effigy.

[Summon collaborator 'Preceptor Miriam'?]

Choosing yes, Lloyd immediately rolled aside, dodging another Soul Spear and soul cannon. Taking advantage of a brief opening, he pulled out a favorite little trinket from his inventory, aimed, and hurled it into the sky.

Not at the Crystal Sage or the spectral shrimp, but at the fragment itself.

It struck true—slamming into the fragment, and from there, onto the face of some hidden presence lurking behind it, watching the spectacle completely unprepared.

Splat!

Truth be told, it did little damage, and the buildup of abnormal status was minor—three or four would be needed to inflict poison.

But if the goal was simply to enrage, one was enough.

And from the violent fluctuations rippling across the fragment afterward, it was obvious that the being behind it was furious.

However, to Lloyd's surprise, even after he had thrown that stunt, the other side didn't project any more power outward.

After a while, through the fragment's fluctuations, it faintly conveyed a message: "I won't break the rules. Let's see what you do."

Lloyd answered with a middle finger, then dodged the torrent of souls once again.

The ally from the golden effigy was summoned—a figure in a wide hat, clad in the Carian Sorcerer's set.

After appearing, it only exchanged a glance with Lloyd before diving straight into battle.

Yet even with this sorcerer joining in, the situation hardly improved.

Its specialty was the Greatbow sorcery—great at long range, tricky when aimed at players. But against these two enemies with absurdly high magic resistance, it was nearly useless. Not total immunity, but even a fully charged Greatbow barely scratched them.

As for closing the distance, the spectral Crystallian Shrimp blocked the only path to the Crystal Sage. And if one did get close, its melee was even more ridiculous than its ranged attacks.

While Lloyd struggled to find a way through, Miriam's health was being chipped away bit by bit.

Rummaging through his inventory, Lloyd suddenly spotted something and raised an eyebrow.

[Trina's Oathsworn King]

[Equipping increases sleep buildup efficiency]

[A girl born defective could never grow up]

[Because of her flaw, she fell into eternal sleep]

[And in the depths of that sleep]

[She met her king]

[I will sleep beside you]

[Until the purple bud fully blooms]

Truth be told, Lloyd didn't even remember owning this Covenant. When testing toys before, he had ignored it since it wasn't a weapon.

But now, regardless of when it was forged, the name alone reminded him of something.

With that thought, he clicked on the little purple flower in his inventory.

The moment it appeared on him, the Covenant switched.

After dodging another attack, Lloyd turned toward Miriam and shouted:

"Stop fighting!"

Miriam didn't know what was going on, but she rolled to cancel the Greatbow in her hands.

Then, with soul energy flowing in, the slumbering girl answered her king, slowly raising her hand.

A lone purple flower bloomed, and under the Covenant's power, a ball of purple magic gently formed.

Lloyd raised his staff and held it near the small hand.

Her hand reached out, clasped his, and purple magic surged through. With the two of them combined, a new sorcery was born.

[Acquired Covenant Skill: Hypnotic Magic Spear]

[Hypnotic Magic Spear]

[Unorthodox hypnotic Glintstone Sorcery]

[Far weaker than orthodox sorceries]

[But greatly builds up sleep]

[Power scales with Covenant level]

[Requires both 'Trina's Oathsworn King' and 'Trina' equipped]

[The purple lone flower waits in dreams for her sworn king]

[Awaiting the day they meet]

[System 'Covenant Skills' unlocked]

Lloyd swung the staff down.

The spear of hypnotic magic slammed into the Crystal Sage's head, and in an instant, it dropped into a baby-like sleep.

Repeating the same process, Lloyd struck the spectral Crystallian Shrimp, knocking it unconscious as well.

By all logic, crystalline constructs like these shouldn't be vulnerable to sleep—if not outright immune, then at least with very high resistance. And that was true: if Trina had used sleep sorcery on her own, even with Lloyd's soul infused, it would have taken ages of chipping away before the two succumbed.

But this time, she was using a Covenant Skill.

And the bonus from that… let's just say it was beyond broken.

With both enemies asleep, the rest was simple.

Carrying Trina on his back, Lloyd walked straight past, stopped behind the Crystal Sage, raised his head toward the fragment, and flipped it the middle finger before buffing himself.

Golden Vow. Rejection of the All-Knowing. A bite of Exalted Flesh. Two Twinblades drawn. And then—

Jump attack!

Bang, bang—bang, bang—

That's the price of overwhelming ranged firepower: a frail body and laughable close combat.

Without the protection of terrain, just two rounds of jump slashes cut the Crystal Sage's health down to a quarter.

The Sage lifted its staff again, but instead of casting or summoning, it vanished on the spot.

When it reappeared on the far platform, Lloyd's eye twitched.

"Seath, you bastard, making something like this… your mother must be dead..."

If it weren't for Trina, he didn't even want to imagine how miserable he would have been, dealing with monsters blinking around this shitty terrain.

But with Trina here, things became simple.

Another shot of the Hypnotic Magic Spear sent the distant Crystal Sage to sleep. One more to the spectral Crystallian Shrimp trying to rise, and it slumped back down as well.

Then, hopping across the platforms, Lloyd drew his Twinblades again and repeated the earlier process.

Pfft—

Blood sprayed, and the health bar dropped to zero.

With the fall of the Crystal Sage, the spectral shrimp it had summoned vanished as well.

The fragment above rippled, as if trying to convey something.

Lloyd could almost make it out—it sounded like it was cursing him for cheating, for hacking.

He flipped it a middle finger.

"You piece of shit, stuffing enemies into terrain like this—think that makes you clever?"

If the opponent could abuse every rule within the system, then so could he.

The fragment's trembling ceased.

Deprived of its power, it drifted down into Lloyd's palm before being handed off to a golden-haired figure who suddenly appeared.

After taking the fragment, the golden-haired one disappeared again to handle other matters.

Lloyd, meanwhile, spent some time examining the Covenant skill. From its descriptions, he pieced together its workings.

Once a Covenant reached a certain level, if both the Covenant itself was equipped and its partner fought by your side, a special skill could be unlocked.

For Trina, that meant the Hypnotic Magic Spear. Its sleep buildup was absurd—enough to knock out something on par with a Godskin Apostle at a glance. "Broken" didn't even begin to cover it.

And according to the description, this wasn't even its final form.

With higher Covenant levels, its sleep effect could be pushed even further, evolving into stronger abnormal states. Even the sorcery itself would evolve, branching into several new forms.

After finishing his research, the little purple flower that had just helped him didn't seem eager to return.

Only after Lloyd kissed its petals and praised it did it finally slip back into his inventory.

[The bond of the Covenant has deepened]

With the fragment handled and Trina stored away, Lloyd turned his attention forward.

The Inverted Carian Study Hall was still an odd place, but nothing remained inside that could threaten him.

Clearing it with ease, he came to an upside-down door. Pushing it open, he stepped out onto the great bridge leading to the Divine Tower.

Activating the Site of Grace nearby, he walked a little further and found the corpse of a Godskin Noble sprawled on the roadside. Crystals littered the area—it seemed Seath had killed it somehow.

Lloyd collected the glowing drops, obtaining the Godskin Noble set and the spirit ashes of the Godskin Noble.

Further ahead, he finally reached the Divine Tower of Liurnia.

Taking the elevator up, the sight that greeted him was unlike the other towers.

There was no corpse of the Two Fingers, no altar to awaken a Great Rune.

Instead, lying there was the charred body of a girl.

Yes—charred remains, not a delicate body.

What Lloyd saw was a young girl's burned corpse, with several glowing drops beside it.

Picking them up, prompts appeared:

[Obtained item: Cursemark of Death]

[Obtained talisman: Legend of the Star-Gazing Girl]

[Obtained material: Remains of the Lunar Princess]

...

[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]

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