Xia Yu reached out and produced a cluster of dark-gold light. It was the Remembrance of the Dragon Lord, Placidusax.
Remembrances are the crystallized battle memories of formidable foes. A Tarnished can typically offer them to Enia, the Finger Reader, to extract specialized weapons or incantations. However, in Xia Yu's hands, these unused Remembrances possessed a unique synergy with the Elden Ring. Instead of forging equipment, she could use the memory to manifest as the legend itself.
'That is...' Kashchey stared fixately at the glowing mass. 'A soul? The soul of a powerhouse?'
"See, Buldrokas'tee! I told you she was no good!"
"This is the Remembrance of a Dragon Lord I defeated in fair combat," Xia Yu glanced at him with disdain. "A parasite like you isn't fit to question it."
Before he could respond, golden specks of light drifted from Xia Yu's body. Amidst a rain of radiance, the massive, scarred form of the Great Dragon gradually revealed itself.
Placidusax was never at full strength. He originally possessed five heads, but three had been torn away during an ancient war. As the victor of that conflict, he had suppressed the traitorous Bayle the Dread in the Land of Shadow, stripping him of his ancient scales and crippling his wings and limbs.
The Dragon Lord spent eons nursing his wounds in the crumbling Farum Azula, perhaps waiting for his vanished god to return to the Lands Between. Instead, he found only the arrival of the Tarnished.
The battle against the Dragon Lord was grueling: red lightning that blanketed the world, elusive thunderclouds, and the terrifying Golden Ruin. While the Lands Between held beings more powerful than this crippled king, he was the perfect choice for the current situation.
As Xia Yu's reconnaissance showed, the anti-air capabilities of these warships were pathetic.
The ancient, desolate dragon emerged within the rain of light. Startling scars covered its battered body, and the three severed necks caused the onlookers to gasp in horror. The dragon cast a single downward glance at the crowd, then beat its two massive wings, soaring toward the horizon fleet amidst a storm of red Dragoncone Lightning.
'...She's a dragon?!' Kashchey's face turned pale. He had assumed she was some ancient relic, but a dragon...
Patriot commanded the Guerillas to surround the Snake in dense layers. He could see that Kashchey's control over Talulah's body remained imperfect—he could only force her to speak. He didn't even dare take a step; Talulah's internal resistance was so fierce that he had to stay rooted just to suppress her, let alone draw a weapon.
Far across the tundra, the fleet remained oblivious.
"Count Boris, sir," an officer reported in the command center with a salute. "The target is within visual range. Shall we deploy the formation?"
"No, get closer," Count Boris shook his head. "Wait until we are within five kilometers."
"But according to the manual..." The officer hesitated.
"The Fleet Manual is for fighting regular armies!" Count Boris shot him a look. "That's why you test and deplete the enemy at the edge of your cannon range. But these Infected don't even have heavy firepower. What are you afraid of? You must adapt tactics to the actual situation. Rote memorization only stops you from losing; you need a brain to win beautifully. Understood?"
"Yes, Count Boris!" The officer saluted and left to relay the orders.
Of course, Count Boris wasn't as noble as he sounded. He was refusing to flank simply to buy time for the Duke's plan. As for the insignificant Infected? He didn't give them a second thought. The only ones worth his attention were that person and Patriot. He had even moved his flagship from the center to the third ship on the right to prevent any boarding attempts.
"Have the assault teams standby on deck," he ordered. "We must ensure no one boards—"
"Wait, what is that?!" An observer shrieked, pointing at the sky, his entire body trembling.
"What's the panic?" Count Boris's heart tightened. He scanned the deck for intruders and, finding none, turned to berate the observer.
"But, Count Boris..." The observer pointed at his screen instead of apologizing. "The sky... there's something in the sky!"
"What could be in the sky?" Frustrated that his authority was being ignored, Count Boris strode over. "Have you—"
The command center erupted in chaos.
The sky... the sky!
"What is that?!"
Count Boris froze for a second, then snapped his head up. Beneath the eternal gray-black clouds of Ursus, a crimson meteor plummeted toward the fleet with unparalleled momentum.
"Evasive maneuvers! All ships, scatter!" he screamed.
The two central warships attempted to break formation, but as they moved, the red meteor corrected its trajectory.
"Kazan, it's coming for you! To the right! To the right!!"
Before his shout faded, the meteor slammed into the Kazan's deck. The sheer wind pressure kicked up a wall of snow, instantly shrouding the ship's foredeck.
"Kazan! Report damage!" Count Boris grabbed the communicator, his voice raw. "Move! Can you still move?"
"Thank god, Count Boris, we're alright," the Kazan's captain replied after a few seconds. "The meteor... it didn't seem that powerful? The upper deck is a mess, but the hull is intact. We can still operate."
"Good," Count Boris sighed in relief, watching the snow begin to clear. "Where did it come from? Could it be..."
The words died in his throat.
As the snow settled, Count Boris saw something wrong.
'I think there's a trick to it,' the Kazan's captain continued to speculate, his bridge still obscured by the localized storm. 'Given its speed and mass, it should have paralyzed us.'
"Maybe it slowed itself down," Count Boris muttered instinctively, staring at the massive tail visible in the mist.
"Count Boris? How can a meteor slow itself down?" The Kazan's captain was baffled.
"No, it certainly can." Behind the tail, two tattered, giant wings unfurled. Count Boris was catatonic.
'Wait, what is that gold light?' The Kazan's captain saw a golden brilliance ignite at the front of the mist.
"Run! Purz, run!" the captain of the nearby Belaros screamed. "Get off the bridge!"
It was too late.
Xia Yu had already charged Placidusax's Ruin. Torrents of golden fire poured from the two dragon heads, flooding the Kazan's foredeck. Finally, the snow cleared entirely, and the bridge crew watched in horror as the flames intensified. The fire condensed and compressed until it formed two colossal beams of light.
"The cannons! Where are the cannons!" the Kazan's captain shrieked. "Interrupt it!"
The surrounding ships scrambled to aim their batteries. But they needed time.
Xia Yu only needed to tilt her heads.
As the dragon heads rose, the golden pillars of light swept across the Kazan's bridge. They carved two massive fissures into the deck; the Kazan's forward batteries were liquidated before they could even prime. Under the despairing eyes of the Ursus soldiers, the gold beams tore through the deck and climbed the command tower.
"Eva—" The Kazan's captain only managed a single syllable before the reinforced glass melted and golden light claimed his vision.
He was reduced to ash instantly.
The surrounding ships watched as the beams punched through the command tower, carved deep scars into the aft deck, and literally split the warship in two before soaring upward to pierce the clouds.
"...The Kazan, silent."
Watching the burning wreck, Count Boris felt a wave of dizziness.
"Count Boris! We can't just sit here!" An officer finally pulled him back to reality.
"Right. We can't just watch," Count Boris looked at the dragon that had just erased the Kazan. "Order all ships! Fire at will!"
The batteries were finally aligned, waiting for the word. They should have fired sooner, but the shock had paralyzed them.
Xia Yu had no intention of staying put. With a heavy beat of her wings, the massive dragon silhouette ascended, circling above the fleet.
"Fire! What are you waiting for?!" Count Boris roared at his officers.
"We can't hit it, Count Boris!" the officers cried in panic. "The elevation is insufficient! We can't aim that high!"
"What do you mean 'insufficient'—" He stopped mid-sentence.
He remembered. No naval cannon in the world could hit a target directly above its own mast.
"What about the secondary batteries?" he asked, losing his composure.
"The small-caliber spell cannons are for drones!" the officers shouted. "The range is too short! Even if they hit, I don't think they'd scratch that thing."
"Count Boris, did Victoria intervene? This is a dragon—a Great Dragon!"
"Victoria has no dragons! Even the Dracos are extinct!" Count Boris snapped reflexively.
"Then what do we do?"
"Let me think," Count Boris was at a loss. He wanted to tell them to figure it out themselves, but as the supreme commander, he was the only thing holding their morale together.
Xia Yu didn't give them time.
The dragon let out a sky-rending roar. Crimson thunderclouds blanketed the sky, and the massive body slowly retreated into the lightning, vanishing from the fleet's sight.
'It ran away?' someone asked hopefully.
"Idiot, that's not fleeing," another cursed. "It's preparing an assault! Everyone, get ready—"
Before he finished, a thundercloud rolled in behind one of the ships. With the speed of a falling bolt, the dragon manifested. It condensed dragon-lightning into a massive claw and swiped through the command tower, slicing it into segments.
The ship's communications went dark instantly.
"Fire! Open fire!" Count Boris screamed.
But by the time the batteries turned, the dragon had unfurled its wings and vanished back into the clouds.
"Count Boris! What do we do?" Everyone realized the nature of the attack. It was impossible to guard against; no one knew where the target would appear next.
"How should I kn—" Count Boris began to curse, but he was interrupted as the dragon reappeared with the thunderclouds, shredding the command tower of the rightmost ship with another claw strike.
Then, it vanished again.
In twenty minutes, they had lost three warships without landing a single hit on the enemy's hide. Morale had plummeted to the abyss.
"Monster! Monster!"
"Count Boris, say something!"
"Mama, I want to go home..."
The fleet channel was filled with wailing and static.
Just then, the dragon appeared in front of another ship. This time, it didn't even bother with illusions. It physically ripped a battery turret from the deck with its claws, took flight, and threw it.
★ ★ ★
The turret smashed through the bridge, paralyzing the command chain instantly.
"We can't just wait to die!" Count Boris finally snapped out of it. "It's playing with us!"
Indeed, the dragon could have easily wiped the fleet out, yet it seemed to be in no hurry.
"Aim the main cannons at the ships next to you!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "The moment it lands, fire immediately!"
★ ★ ★
T/N: This arc uses a lot of unique terms that it's difficult to keep track of everything. If you spot any mismatched terms or names, please let me know.