As a piercing light washed over her face, Elsa instinctively shielded her eyes. Having been imprisoned for so long, she found it impossible to look directly at the Erdtree, which now loomed so large it seemed to blot out the very sky.
After a brief moment of adjustment, she surveyed her surroundings. Her gaze eventually settled on a dilapidated church nearby, and she couldn't help but murmur to herself.
"What has happened over these years? Has even a place like this been abandoned?"
"I'll explain everything to you in time," Gawain replied. "But for now, I have another destination to reach. Follow me."
Elsa hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to follow the man before her. Many of the landscapes preserved in her memory had vanished, leaving behind only crumbling ruins.
Though she had known the Golden Lineage—an era born of conspiracy and betrayal—could not last forever, seeing such desolation and decay with her own eyes still filled her with a profound sense of melancholy.
Once, as one of the most powerful warriors of the Zamor, she had led her fellow mountain warriors alongside Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, to victory over the Fire Giants. Back then, they were full of high spirits and vigor. Now, this ruin was all that remained.
It felt as though everything had changed, yet in other ways, it was no different from the era when the Fire Giants ran rampant. All she sought now was vengeance. She would repay the traitors of the Golden Order with the same cruelty they had once inflicted upon her and her kin during the war.
Lost in a trance of memory, Elsa suddenly realized they had already passed through the First Church of Marika. Near the coastline stood a set of ruins she didn't recognize, where several Marionette Soldiers wandered aimlessly.
She recognized the craftsmanship. After all, Radagon—the man who had branded her—had suffered two humiliating setbacks against the Academy during those wars. In the end, he had only secured the Academy through a "union." After Godfrey defeated the Storm Lord in a duel, warriors like her became the targets of a cold-blooded purge.
"Marionette Soldiers from the Academy? Why are they here?" Elsa asked. "It looks as if they are guarding something."
"Just a bunch of Academy bureaucrats squabbling amongst themselves," Gawain said dismissively. "There's a witch imprisoned down there, regarded as a heretic. I'm going to deal with those puppets. You'll help me, won't you?"
Elsa nodded, her curiosity piqued. She wondered what had happened to the Academy to turn it into this. In her time, under the leadership of Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, such pointless internal strife had been kept to a minimum.
Once Gawain locked onto the positions of the Marionette Soldiers, he leapt down. The puppets immediately detected the intruder, their bodies twitching violently as they launched their assault.
Gawain slammed his foot into the ground, triggering the Storm Stomp skill. A whirlwind erupted around him, swiping away the incoming arrows. He swung his greatsword with surgical precision, severing the joints of the puppets to disable them as quickly as possible.
Elsa didn't stand idle. Having recovered from her heavy injuries, she was eager to vent her pent-up resentment. To be honest, her previous battle with Gawain had been frustrating; she hadn't managed to land a single effective hit.
The combat style of the Zamor—characterized by graceful, swift movements and the use of frost magic—was perfectly displayed through Elsa. From another perspective, the Marionette Soldiers, who seemed capable of attacking from all angles, were actually riddled with openings. In a short time, the puppets were nearly all dismantled.
Suddenly, a mechanism within the ruins was triggered. A black magic circle manifested out of thin air, and a spherical object was warped into the fray. It was covered in countless stone glintstone crowns, their twisted expressions letting out a ghastly shriek at the two intruders.
"What in the world is that? There are real human bodies beneath those masks!"
Even a veteran like Elsa, who had seen many horrors, felt a wave of revulsion at her first sight of a Mass of Graven Mages. It looked as if someone had forcibly fused countless sorcerers into a single, horrific entity.
"That's a Graven Mass," Gawain explained. "A twisted hobby of the Primeval Current sorcerers. Though, to be fair, the 'raw materials' used to make them weren't exactly innocent themselves."
Gawain knew that if any of the sorcerers currently occupying the Academy were decent people, they would have at least earned a name in the history books. Instead, the only bosses there were Radagon's Red Wolf and the Queen's projection conjured by Ranni. They were nothing more than a clique of academic tyrants who specialized in purging "heretics."
The mouths on the countless stone masks of the Graven Mass swung open, firing a barrage of blue glintstone orbs. Simultaneously, a cloud of toxic mist began to spread through the air.
Gawain summoned a gust of wind to disperse the poison. Elsa seized the opening, using frost magic to manifest a hail of ice spears that she drove into the Graven Mass alongside her curved sword.
Gawain raised his hand, and the talisman he carried emitted a holy white light. This was a masterpiece designed by "Havel the Rock" to deal with Seath the Scaleless. The Great Magic Barrier enveloped them both, and the massive volley of glintstone orbs from the monster shattered harmlessly against the ward.
In his left hand, Gawain manifested a Pyromancy Flame, forming a violent orb of fire. He charged forward and slammed the fireball directly into the center of the Graven Mass. A thunderous explosion followed, scattering charred remnants of flesh across the ground.
"How disgusting... how did they even stick together?"
Elsa brushed the bits of flesh off her clothes with a look of disdain. She glanced at Gawain, who was doing the same, and her perception of him began to shift.
She realized now just how much he had held back in their previous fight. If he had gone all out from the start, she wouldn't have even had the chance to strike back. The strange techniques he used were unlike anything she had ever seen.
Since he had shown her the utmost goodwill by rescuing her, she didn't mind offering him a bit more trust. As for the possibility of future betrayal? To her, it would simply be history repeating itself. For now, the most important thing was her revenge against the Golden Order.
After cleaning up, Gawain walked to the entrance of the ruin's cellar. He lingered there for a long time but ultimately did not step inside.
"What's wrong? It seems what you were looking for is down there. Aren't you going in?"
He shook his head.
"Never mind. There's no need right now. We just need to make sure this place is protected from outsiders."
Gawain knew that if he went in now, he would likely only find a delirious Sellen. Her consciousness was currently beneath the Waypoint Ruins. He didn't want his first meeting with his teacher to happen like this. He would meet her formally when he traveled to Limgrave later.
Of course, he wouldn't allow any outsiders to threaten Sellen's original body. To that end, he wasn't above using a few "vile" miracles.
He looked at the semi-decayed corpses scattered throughout the ruins and came up with a plan.
"Elsa, stand back. I'm going to use a certain method to secure this place."
Once she had moved a safe distance away, the light from Gawain's talisman shifted from holy white to a murky darkness. This color represented the profaned miracles of the Londor faction. He rarely used them, but he had learned them nonetheless.
As orbs of black light adhered to the corpses in the ruins, the lifeless remains were granted a "blessing." Their eyes ignited with an eerie glow as they stood back up, their bodies twitching involuntarily as if they might explode at any moment. Even the chunks of flesh from the Graven Mass he had just destroyed began to levitate in the air.
This was the dark miracle Dead Again. It granted life to corpses, turning them into wandering, automatic dark bombs.
Unless he personally revoked the blessing, any intruder would be relentlessly pursued by these remains until they were consumed by a dark explosion. And if the intruder somehow survived that, he would sense the trigger and warp back to protect Sellen's body.
Elsa watched Gawain emerge from the ruins. She saw the wandering corpses below but said nothing. Some things were better left unasked.
Gawain summoned Torrent and led Elsa toward the final stop of their expedition: the Church of Pilgrimage. He planned to take the Sacred Tear from the chalice there before heading back. Along the way, he would explain the current state of the Lands Between.
By nightfall, Gawain and Elsa sat around a simple campfire. Nearby lay a shattered statue of Radagon. Gawain had finished explaining the major events of the intervening years.
"I see," Elsa said. "Such an ending was within my expectations. But since those demigods of the Golden Lineage still hold their territories, they remain the targets of my revenge."
"I admit, some of those demigods deserve to die," Gawain replied. "Like Godrick the Grafted, or Rykard, who has gone mad and devours his own kind. They are targets I intend to deal with. But Elsa, I want you to understand—pure slaughter is not the outcome I seek. The Lands Between are broken enough as it is. If we can avoid unnecessary death, that would be for the best."
Elsa sighed quietly. After hearing these stories, she wasn't entirely sure what her next step should be. The once-glorious Golden Order had long since disintegrated, leaving only the so-called Veiled Monarch to guard the capital of Leyndell and maintain the last vestige of order.
When she had followed Godfrey into battle, it wasn't just out of hatred for the Fire Giants; she had been drawn by the bright future Queen Marika had promised them.
Compared to the Fire Giants, the Gloam-Eyed Queen, or various small but frenzied factions like the Frenzied Flame—who were all far too abstract or monstrous—the Golden Order had at least seemed like a human government.
Deep down, she didn't want to see the Lands Between continue to shatter. This wasn't the future she had promised her kin when she left her homeland.
"So," she asked, "do you believe you can change the mess this world has become?"
Gawain shook his head. His own resolve wasn't as unshakable as one might think.
"To be honest, I don't know. Before I came to the Lands Between, I failed once. No matter how hard I tried back then, I couldn't change the final outcome."
He thought of his countless struggles and moments of despair in the dying world of Dark Souls, persevering until the very end of the Age of Fire.
"But a heart of passion must never be extinguished, even if that feeling has been betrayed a thousand times. Some things simply need to be done. So, why not by me?"
Elsa committed those words to memory. Yes, she had thought the same when she stepped onto the most dangerous frontlines of the Giant War. If she didn't do it, who would?
For a moment, she felt as if she had returned to those blood-boiling days of the past. Perhaps... she could try one more time.
"In that case, I am willing to become your strength on the journey ahead—until the end of my life, or until the moment one of us breaks our word."
Gawain stood up and raised his greatsword.
"In that case, raise your weapon. Like this."
Though Elsa didn't understand what he intended, she raised her curved sword and crossed it with his weapon. Suddenly, a blinding golden light erupted from the point where their blades met. The warm radiance enveloped them both, illuminating the dim, ruined church.
She felt a mysterious power. For a moment, it was as if his sincere conviction flowed through the weapons and into the depths of her soul.
"This is..."
"This is the miracle known as Sacred Oath," Gawain said. "It is the vow taken by warriors who serve the Covenant of Sunlight. As a Warrior of Sunlight, I swear to you: in the journey to come, there will be no more betrayal or conspiracy. May your courage, my sword, and our shared mission rest with the Sun!"
Tears involuntarily welled up in Elsa's eyes. She didn't know why she was reacting this way; oaths were supposed to be worthless in the Lands Between. Yet, the tremor from the depths of her soul made her want to believe him. This time, there would be no betrayal.
"Yes... I believe you. But what is this 'Sunlight Covenant' you speak of? Such a pure conviction and spirit... I have never felt anything like it."
Gawain lowered his weapon and gazed up at the starry sky. He could see only the shimmering stars and the moon. He knew that a sun existed in the Lands Between, but it was too small, appearing dim and pale beneath the brilliance of the Erdtree and the Moon.
"The Sunlight Covenant was never about a specific set of rules," Gawain said. "Just like the great Sun itself—as long as you can illuminate and inspire others on the path you seek, you are a true Warrior of Sunlight."
Elsa recalled the white orb of light she had seen while looking up from the Mountaintops of the Giants, and the legendary city said to represent the Sun. She spoke with a hint of loneliness.
"The Sun? But it is so small. It is far inferior to the Fell God of the Fire Giants, or the Erdtree that covers the world."
"If there is no Sun, then become the most dazzling Sun yourself," Gawain replied. "Let your own light give warmth to others. That is what a Warrior of Sunlight does."
Elsa lowered her sword, a look of relief finally appearing on her face.
"It seems you have already lived up to your oath quite well."
────────────────────────────────────────
Support me here: https://[email protected]/AuAuMon
Elden Ring: In the Name of Ash (40 chapter - Ongoing)
Join the journey and become part of the story!
────────────────────────────────────────