With the appearance of the Death Runes, Xiao quickly calmed down and understood one fact: the power of the blessing did not originate solely from the Golden Order itself; rather, it stemmed from a certain world law within the Lands Between.
This law allowed energy to condense into crystalline forms that could be perfectly absorbed by mortals, much like how mages absorb glintstone crystals to cast sorceries.
Any kind of energy could be transformed into crystals, and by absorbing these power crystals, one's own strength could be enhanced.
The true attribute of the Golden Order should be Marika's authority over life and eternity.
Therefore, Xiao realized that he was completely capable of using the suspended animation circuit to construct his own Death Blessing points, allowing all Those Who Live in Death to achieve long-distance teleportation through the Death Blessing.
Xiao decided to begin his experiments using the Academy sorcerers. He bestowed Death Runes upon these sorcerers.
He observed that after absorbing the Death Runes, their strength improved significantly, and their basic mortal attributes were enhanced as well.
This discovery excited Xiao, further broadening the possibilities for spreading the Law of Death.
Next, Xiao conducted even more experiments, attempting to use different laws to plunder energy and life force.
The results were astonishing. Whether it was the Black Sun Rune, the Sky Rune, or the Cyber Rune, all of them condensed into corresponding Rune crystals.
This once again proved that the power of blessings did not belong solely to the Golden Order, nor even to the Greater Will. It was the power of the Lands Between itself!
Even the authority to condense Great Runes originated from the Lands Between itself!
It was precisely because of this power that the Lands Between became an object of contention among the Outer Gods.
And the Greater Will was likely only the final victor in the struggle over the Lands Between.
This made Xiao secretly marvel inwardly. No wonder the Greater Will cherished the Lands Between so much.
Whoever possessed this kind of power could mass-produce powerful mortal heroes and demigods, and could even create deities themselves. Who wouldn't covet such power?
Xiao did not continue dwelling on the matter. Now was not the time to study the Rune system. What mattered was resolving the crisis at hand.
Direct negotiations were impossible. A battle had to happen first. Strike once to prevent a hundred future troubles.
If he showed weakness now, the demigods would undoubtedly treat him as an easy target, and then everyone would come to kick him while he was down.
However, he also could not reveal too much power. That would place excessive pressure on the demigods, causing them to refuse to rest until he was completely dead.
Thus, how to maintain this balance became crucial.
At the same time, he had to find a way to expose the fact that he only possessed half of a Great Rune left, letting the demigods know that he no longer posed a threat.
Because an Empyrean without a complete Great Rune could not become a god, much less repair the shattered Elden Ring.
However, if even this series of combined efforts failed to stop the demigods' siege, then there would be no need to continue hiding. Fighting to the bitter end would become the only option.
Thus, Xiao secretly split off an avatar and infiltrated the allied forces, locating the Serpent Men contingent within Volcano Manor's army.
Volcano Manor had always been the gathering place and stronghold of the Serpent Men.
These Serpent Men were not only subordinates of the Gloam-Eyed Queen, but also her kin.
The Blasphemous Serpent itself had once been chosen by the Gloam-Eyed Queen as Elden Lord, an existence capable of contending against the barbaric warrior Hoarah Loux.
Therefore, Volcano Manor and the Serpent Men forces could be said to have deep and inseparable ties to the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
Even after the Gloam-Eyed Queen's defeat, the Serpent Men's hatred toward the Golden Lineage never changed.
Although the Serpent Men had been incorporated by Marika and placed under Rykard's command,
their duty remained the same: to punish and kill those of the Golden Lineage.
Based on all this, Xiao did not believe that the Serpent Men truly believed in the Golden Order, nor that they sincerely submitted to one of the Golden Order's children.
This could be seen clearly from the original story. When Rykard truly decided to betray the Golden Order, the Serpent Men pledged allegiance to him without hesitation.
Even the Blasphemous Serpent itself accepted fusion with Rykard, becoming part of his blasphemous law, all in pursuit of greater power and the devouring of the Golden Order and Marika herself.
This was sufficient proof of the Serpent Men's intense hatred toward the Golden Order and the Golden Lineage beneath it.
The only thing Xiao could not understand was this: all of the Serpent Men's actions demonstrated their extreme hostility toward the Golden Order, so Marika should have had no reason to incorporate them.
But Marika had still succeeded in doing so. There must be some hidden secret within this matter that Xiao did not yet know, and perhaps he would only discover it after personally going to Volcano Manor.
Rykard actually wanted to bring the Serpent Men into an alliance whose core was the Golden Order in order to jointly deal with Xiao, the Serpent Men's own goddess. This behavior was somewhat comical.
Upon seeing Xiao, the Goddess of Death, the Serpent Men almost immediately betrayed Rykard and once again pledged their allegiance to Xiao.
Just as swiftly as the Carian sorcerers had sworn loyalty to Radahn, this was the loyalty of the people of the Lands Between.
The concepts of "loyalty" and "righteousness" almost ran throughout the entire history of mortals within the Lands Between.
After Godwyn the Golden died, the Golden Knights voluntarily severed their own heads, becoming spirits to eternally guard the corpse of the Prince of Death.
The Tarnished Knights, rather than abandon their homeland, chose to continue following Godrick, remaining steadfast even after he had descended into madness, waiting for his impossible promise.
The Redmane Knights, in order to free Radahn from Scarlet Rot, died one after another during the Festival of Combat.
The Carian Knights, to protect their queen, willingly guarded the gates, enduring eternal loneliness.
Once they pledged allegiance, they would follow through life and death, never abandoning their lord, even if that lord had been dead for thousands of years, until the very end of their own lives.
The Serpent Men's loyalty deeply moved Xiao.
However, Xiao did not directly take the Serpent Men away. Instead, he granted them the Death Blessing and instructed them to continue hiding among the allied forces, waiting for the right opportunity.
He intended to maximize the benefits. When Radahn eventually led the allied army in its assault against Raya Lucaria Academy, these Serpent Men would stab the allied forces in the back, inflicting catastrophic damage upon the enemy.
At the same time, Xiao also dispatched an avatar to the Royal Capital, Leyndell, hoping to gain the support of Morgott and Mohg.
He revealed to them that he possessed only half of a Great Rune left and claimed that he had no intention of becoming Elden Lord.
However, Xiao had underestimated the deep affection the brothers Morgott and Mohg held for their elder brother, Godwyn.
Facing the one they regarded as the true mastermind behind the Night of the Black Knives, Morgott and Mohg unleashed their fiercest attacks without hesitation, directly destroying Xiao's avatar.
Worse still, had Morgott not stopped him in time, Mohg had even intended to personally lead troops in an assault on Liurnia.
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