If anyone ever asked what they should do the night before an exam, Skyl's answer would be simple: go kill a demigod.
Radahn, leader of the Redmanes and son of Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, was Ranni's own brother.
That blood relationship was precisely why, among everyone who had received the instanced-plane invitation, Ranni's reaction was so different.
"So you already knew. Hmm... did you truly divine it somehow? I have never believed there could be someone in this world who knows everything, yet you keep hinting that such a thing might actually be possible." Ranni paused. "Yes. The true reason I came looking for you was to ask you to participate in the Radahn Festival and kill Starscourge Radahn."
Radahn's name fell over the classroom like a slab of iron, crushing the previously relaxed atmosphere into suffocating silence.
There was no need to elaborate on the title of strongest demigod in the Lands Between.
According to legend, Radahn had studied gravity sorcery and used it to shatter the natural movement of the stars, sealing them in place and bringing their motion to a halt. The night sky over the Lands Between truly was frozen, so however absurd the story sounded, it was undeniably real.
In the occult arts, the stars and fate were deeply intertwined. Once the stars were sealed, the destinies of every living thing in the Lands Between were locked in place along with them.
In truth, Radahn had not halted the stars through his own strength alone. His ability was also connected to the fragment of the Elden Ring he carried.
After all, only the Elden Ring had ever possessed the authority to govern life, influence destiny, and command the movement of the stars.
Although Skyl had taken the divine aspect known as the [Elden Beast], effectively absorbing the divine authority of the [Golden Order], the godhood of the Lands Between, the [Elden Ring], had never disappeared.
That godhood was older than the Golden Order itself. Before the Age of the Erdtree, the ancient dragons had once ruled while possessing the Elden Ring. Even after the Erdtree went dark, the Elden Ring endured, and the vacant throne still awaited the arrival of the next god of the Lands Between.
Every Great Rune was a fragment of that godhood, granting its Shardbearer miraculous power.
Take away Radahn's Great Rune, and the stars would naturally begin moving once more.
The problem was that stripping a Shardbearer of their Great Rune would inflict catastrophic damage upon them and almost certainly result in death. Aside from rare individuals like Malenia, who could recover through prolonged dormancy, a Great Rune was practically inseparable from its bearer's life.
Ranni wanted Radahn dead so the stars could move again, freeing her own destiny and the destinies of countless others.
She felt no pride in killing her own brother. She simply had no other choice.
To murder one's brother for the sake of freedom, fate truly did have a vicious sense of irony.
If there had to be some hidden mastermind behind all of this, then the Greater Will and its loyal servants were the obvious candidates.
The Lands Between had become such a disaster that placing only half the blame on the Greater Will would practically count as defending it.
The Greater Will had sent a group of agents known as the Two Fingers into the Lands Between to oversee the operation of Order. The Two Fingers designated the inheritors of the Great Runes, and each Shardbearer had their own corresponding Two Fingers. Only through them could the blessing of a Great Rune be fully awakened.
If the Greater Will was the director sitting high above the stage and arranging everyone's fate, then the Two Fingers were the supervisors on set, forcing every chosen actor to follow the script prepared for them.
As an Empyrean, Ranni naturally had her own Two Fingers watching over her.
Empyreans might appear glorious and exalted, but their true purpose was little more than serving as replacements.
If the current god of the Lands Between died or became unwilling to follow orders, an Empyrean could simply be brought in to take their place.
The Greater Will's logic was brutally straightforward.
Behave yourself, harvest runes from the common people for your master, and everything would be fine.
Develop ambitions of your own, and you could get out.
If you didn't want the divine throne, there were plenty of others waiting to take it.
That was the Lands Between.
God or mortal, no one could escape the fate of being exploited.
The entire Erdtree system was built upon that same cruelty, treating all living beings as crops and livestock.
The continent of the Lands Between even resembled a curled embryo, and Leyndell, where the Erdtree had taken root, happened to lie where its heart would be.
What those roots drank was the blood of all living things.
Skyl understood Ranni perfectly.
She simply refused to be the Greater Will's dog.
What was wrong with that?
There was nothing wrong with it. If anything, she deserved wholehearted support.
Once Radahn was dead, she could rebel against her Two Fingers, and eventually kill them.
Skyl was willing to help.
Ranni understood the kindness and consideration behind that willingness, but she said nothing more about it.
The only complete outsider present was Skyl's roommate, Doniel. After hearing the Lunar Princess casually discussing things like killing the demigod Radahn, he fell into thought.
Skyl noticed his expression. "Doniel, what do you think? Want to come with us?"
"No. Absolutely not. That sounds insanely dangerous." Doniel shook his head violently. "This kind of thing isn't for me. Any hike longer than half a mile is enough to make my calves cramp. And my neck, you know perfectly well that Academy sorcerers practically all suffer from chronic neck problems. I'm a sick man. I'd only slow everyone down on a battlefield."
His understanding of his own limitations was remarkably precise.
Naturally, Doniel wasn't the only one considering backing out.
Thops was as well.
The sorcerers of the Academy were not all frail scholars. In fact, many were formidable fighters. There was even an entire conspectus devoted to sorcery designed for combat, the Haima Conspectus.
The battlemages of Haima were all enormous, powerfully built men. With a staff in one hand, they could unleash devastating glintstone sorceries. In the other, they carried stone clubs thicker than a man's fist and practiced the terrifying art of "stone-swinging sorcery," otherwise known as smashing people over the head with a giant club.
Even seasoned warriors found the technique deeply unsettling.
Unfortunately, every Haima battlemage had already left the Academy.
They refused to hide behind its walls while war raged outside and had actively thrown themselves into the conflict, earning considerable fame on the battlefield.
"If you don't want to participate, that's fine." Skyl turned toward Moli, bent down, and gave the young apprentice his most suspiciously friendly smile. "Moli, want to come with us? Uncle Skyl will take you into an instanced plane."
Thops nearly jumped out of his skin. "That's far too dangerous!"
"Dying inside an instanced plane doesn't result in actual death. You'll only enter a weakened cooldown period afterward."
What Skyl neglected to explain was that dying inside an instanced plane really did mean dying once.
The Tower of Tomes' central brain simply recorded each player's timestamp and could rewind their personal timeline to the moment before they entered the instance, creating the illusion that they had never truly died.
Part of the energy required to reverse time had to be supplied by the player themselves, which was why resurrection left them weakened.
The weakness was never fatal, but the stronger the player, the greater the price required to rewind their timeline, and the longer their period of weakness would last.
The moment everyone heard that they couldn't truly die, several people immediately became interested.
Thops and Doniel exchanged a glance.
"Well... now that you mention it, I suppose I'd be willing to try," Thops said with an awkward laugh.
"Could I receive this Grace of Silver too?" Doniel forced his face into an unnaturally ingratiating smile. "Please?"
"Then everyone can come. Problem solved."
Skyl had no objection.
Ranni looked around at them all and spoke solemnly. "If you are willing to help, then House Caria will remember this friendship."
"Your Highness, the honor is ours." Thops placed a hand over his chest.
Melina replied calmly, "I'll follow Skyl."
Millicent gave a faint, somber smile before straightening her back and resting one hand on the hilt of her sword.
"All right. No reason to delay. We leave now."
Everyone confirmed entry into the instanced plane through the game interface projected across their vision.
White light suddenly enveloped their bodies.
A second later, they vanished.
Instanced Plane Mission: Starbreaker Radahn's Last Battle
Instanced Plane Scale: Small
Difficulty Rating: Hard
Tower of Tomes central brain online...
Searching historical timestamps...
Confirming player timestamps...
Anchoring spatiotemporal region...
Location confirmed: Caelid...
Silver Tree Root System online...
Grand Symphony System online...
Generating instanced plane...
In southern Lands Between, eastern Caelid, the sun had not yet completely disappeared beneath the horizon.
Heroes who had come to participate in the Radahn Festival had gathered within Redmane Castle.
Castellan Jerren stood beneath the glow of the setting sun, delivering an impassioned speech to all the warriors who had assembled for the festival.
Then the sky suddenly split open.
Thousands of silver-white bolts stretched outward from the void.
"What are those white lines?"
"Lightning?"
"There isn't a cloud in the sky. How could there be lightning?"
The Silver Tree's roots spread outward from the center of the heavens like a colossal net being woven across the sky. They extended in every direction before descending around the land, enclosing an enormous region spanning tens of thousands of square miles and covering everything from the gates of Redmane Castle to the Wailing Dunes.
The warriors below were still staring upward in confusion when the roots within the void suddenly disappeared.
Moments later, soldiers of the Redmanes rushed in with a report.
An invisible wall had appeared beyond the castle gates.
No matter what methods they tried, nothing could pass through it.
Then several pillars of silver light appeared across the plaza.
Every warrior present turned toward them.
When the pillars faded, a group of people had appeared out of thin air.
"Are they here for the Radahn Festival too?"
"Who the hell are these people? Wait... is that... Her Highness, the Lunar Princess?!"
"Oh, Marika... that person over there...!"
"Lady Malenia?!!"
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