After killing Godwyn, Nolan sensed that the connection between the two half-wheel wound of the centipede rings he had fused had grown even tighter. That closer bond made it easier for him to control death across the Lands Between.
With the Golden Prince and the Ancient Dragon who had kept him company both gone, Nolan decided not to delay any longer and led the others straight out of the Deeproot Depths.
Before leaving, however, he suddenly stopped and looked out over the Deeproot Depths, as if considering something.
Nolan slowly raised his hand and lightly clenched it toward the Deeproot Depths. In an instant, a flash of purple Gravitas light swept through the entire cavern like lightning.
Wherever the light passed, the rock strata of the Deeproot Depths rapidly shattered and split apart, as though kneaded by an invisible giant hand.
There were two underground rivers in the Lands Between, the Siofra River and the Ainsel River.
Like the veins of the earth, these two rivers connected the Deeproot Depths with Nokron and Nokstella.
And since Leyndell was connected to the Deeproot Depths, that meant Morgott and the Two Fingers' armies could use this route to reach Limgrave and Liurnia of the Lakes directly.
Of course, Nolan could not leave a passage that would allow the Two Fingers to strike him from behind.
Naturally, this alone was not enough to destroy Leyndell.
Leyndell's underground world was supported by the roots of the Erdtree's main trunk.
To truly turn Leyndell upside down, one would first have to uproot the entire Erdtree.
But Nolan's goal was not to destroy Leyndell. It was to seal the passage between Leyndell and the underground world.
With his current abilities, that was more than enough.
This time, Nolan did not ride a stone sarcophagus. As he gathered more and more Elden Ring fragments, his command of the Primordial Fire grew increasingly smooth.
As long as he knew the exact spatial location, he could use the space-time power of the Thunder of Light to cross space directly and travel wherever he wanted.
As for traveling through the blood of The Formless Mother, while it was indeed extremely convenient, Nolan avoided using it whenever he could now.
Under normal circumstances, he would only consider using that method when an entire Great Legion needed to be moved.
That Goddess's preferences were far too strange. A normal person really could not get a handle on Her.
As Nolan acted, the underground space of the Deeproot Depths began collapsing at an astonishing speed.
Even with the support of the tree roots, the enormous disturbance inevitably reached Leyndell.
In Leyndell's dark, damp, foul-smelling Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, Margit led a squad of Night's Cavalry galloping through the narrow tunnels.
Darkness surrounded them, and only the faint light of the riders' torches barely lit the road ahead.
The environment was harsh and the paths were complicated, yet the cavalry did not slow down.
Clearly, this tangled and treacherous place was no obstacle to the Omen who had grown up here.
"Brother... Has something really happened to His Highness Godwyn's tomb? What madman would dare desecrate the dead prince?"
Margit suddenly spoke, his voice echoing through the silent Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.
Just as the cavalry reached the lowest level, Margit felt tremors coming from even deeper underground. Cracks were spreading through the sewer walls.
Margit could not help stopping. He looked at the cracking walls and hesitated.
Every action he now took on behalf of the Royal Capital was an attempt to make up for his failure.
The blame for the defeat in the Battle of Mt. Gelmir had fallen entirely on his shoulders.
The nobles of the Royal Capital, who only knew how to drag others down, had used his defeat to pressure him, placing heavy restraints on his current military authority.
If he could handle the matter of Godwyn's tomb properly this time, Morgott might have a chance to help him regain some say in the army.
So when Morgott learned that the Valiant Gargoyles guarding the entrance to the tomb from Nokron had been destroyed, his shock and anxiety flared at once, and he immediately sent Margit here.
What unsettled Margit even more, however, was that judging from the disturbance he was feeling now, this matter would not be easy to handle.
"Where are the Crucible Knights? Were they not guarding the tomb? Why can't I see even one of them?" Margit asked.
A knight's answer made Morgott's brow tighten.
"The guards said the Crucible Knights were transferred away half a month ago."
The news was enough to make his blood boil. Margit's anger surged up at once.
"Why was something this important never reported?" Margit roared.
His true body, Morgott, was the current Lord of Leyndell, raised to the throne by others, yet he had known nothing at all about the movement of the Royal Capital's strongest legion.
Margit's mind spun rapidly, suspicion and conjecture rushing in. He could not help thinking of the nobles within Leyndell.
Although Morgott had been passively pushed onto the throne, he had still taken on the responsibilities expected of a Lord.
He had always tried to imitate that outstanding elder brother of his, Godwyn, doing everything he could to become a qualified Lord.
But precisely because he had truly carried out his duties, he had inevitably touched certain people's interests.
What the nobles wanted had never been an excellent monarch, but a powerful shield and puppet, a tool they could manipulate as they pleased.
If the deployment of the Crucible Knights had something to do with the nobles, and those people had caused trouble, then this would be a problem.
Just as Margit was worrying over it, the arrival of another knight brought him a small measure of relief.
"It was the command of the Two Fingers," the knight said. "They ordered everyone to keep this redeployment strictly secret."
Hearing that, the weight in Margit's heart eased slightly.
But in the next moment, his mood plunged again, and his brow furrowed even deeper.
Even the Two Fingers should not have bypassed him to mobilize the Order of the Crucible Knights.
The Order of the Crucible Knights belonged to the Golden Order Dynasty, not the Church of Two Fingers.
The Two Fingers' overreach immediately stirred Margit's displeasure.
The Church of Two Fingers and the Golden Order Dynasty were not one and the same. At present, their relationship was more like a partnership.
What right did the Two Fingers have to command the Crucible Knights? Did being the spokesperson of the Supreme Deity mean they could do whatever they wanted within the Golden Order Dynasty?
Margit's thoughts did not last long. The tremors grew stronger, cutting them short, and concern for his elder brother's tomb snapped him back to himself.
He was just about to lead the group onward when a massive boulder crashed down from above and blocked their path. Margit reacted quickly, taking a step back to avoid it before looking ahead.
They were only a short distance from the Deeproot Depths, but now the ground was splitting, the walls were collapsing, and bricks and stones were crashing down from overhead with heavy thuds.
"General, should we keep going?" the knights asked urgently.
A single boulder was nothing, but continuing forward was clearly no longer a matter of just one stone.
The Subterranean Shunning-Grounds on this level might not hold long enough for them to reach the Deeproot Depths alive.
Margit's brow knotted tightly, conflict and hesitation filling his heart.
"This place is about to collapse. We retreat for now."
Margit gritted his teeth and cast an unwilling glance at the road ahead, but in the end, he still gave the order to withdraw.
Halfway through issuing it, however, he suddenly stopped, as if remembering something.
"You go up to the level above and arrange the evacuation. I'm going to the Cathedral."
His brother was still there.