Hoarah Loux, from the days when he had cast aside the title of First Elden Lord and pursued nothing but strength. A warrior whose every step shook the earth, whose war cry made the heavens tremble.
I had finally broken his stance, and victory had seemed within reach. But by tearing Serosh apart—the weight of the crown—and absorbing its runes, his barrage of attacks became even faster, and his strength surpassed imagination.
Even [Carian Phalanx] could not so much as keep him in check. I drove [Greatblade Phalanx] into the ground to obstruct his path, but he smashed through them with his relentless attacks and never slowed.
My instincts warned me.
Big moves are impossible. At that speed, the moment I leave an opening, I die.
"Trivial tricks and petty techniques won't work on him."
"Even with barriers, I can barely avoid a fatal blow. At this rate, I'll have to use every perfume I've gathered—and the real fight hasn't even started yet."
Goldmask, who had been unusually composed until now, turned serious. Tricks would not work. Still, perhaps because he had removed his armor, direct hits from weapons and sorcery did hurt him.
But he has enough strength and relentless attacks to overwhelm every weakness he has.
Then the solution was simple. Someone had to become bait and fill that opening. Bait that could endure against that unstoppable warrior.
"I will."
"I'll make an opening. You exploit it and drive that princess's sword into him."
"But... More importantly, what?"
"I'm fond of history, you see. More importantly, isn't that beside the point?"
"...You're right."
"As you can see, I have no proper means of attack. Goldmask never taught me any. If that fellow Corhyn had not gone mad at the end, perhaps I could have received his instruction."
"...I'm counting on you."
"Have you adapted already? Then what a shame! I am still lacking!"
As soon as their final words ended, Hoarah Loux leaped high into the air and drove his hands into the earth. Then, through sheer force alone, he shattered and overturned the ground. Dust engulfed the surroundings.
"Tch, I can't see!"
"Do not make a sound!"
"Damn it...!"
Everything before me was obscured. As I remained on guard, Hoarah Loux suddenly appeared directly in front of me, his arms crossed as if ready to strike.
I could not dodge this.
"Not happening!!!!"
A warning blared through my mind that taking that blow meant death. As I hesitated for an instant, Goldmask dragged me down from behind and took the attack in my place.
"...Excellent. But!"
The blow sent Goldmask flying into the sky. I unleashed a barrage of sorcery at Hoarah Loux, but he leaped faster than the spells could reach him, caught Goldmask, and slammed him into the ground.
"Cough!"
"Oh? You scattered perfume again in that brief moment. I received much of it from him in the old days as well. But!"
Hoarah Loux crushed Goldmask's chest in his grasp. When it was over, only the warrior, drenched in Goldmask's blood, remained standing. With his breath fading, Goldmask raised one hand and invoked [Erdtree Heal]. Then, as though leaving behind his final words, he dropped his hand to the ground.
"...One down."
After defeating Goldmask, Hoarah Loux was caught in memories of the past. He had borne the weight of the crown for hundreds, thousands of years. The throne had been tedious. Now that it was finally broken, countless emotions surged through him—and at last, an opening appeared.
Dozens of shooting stars flew toward him. That sorcerer again. As Hoarah Loux ignored them and prepared to charge, a wide-area [Zamor Ice Storm] blocked his approach and cut off his vision.
Already drunk on exhaustion and exhilaration, Hoarah Loux forced his way through it. He grabbed the warrior, who was raising [Carian Greatsword] to unleash [Carian Grandeur], and hurled him into the sky just as he had done before.
This was the technique I had been proudest of before wearing the crown. Even he had taken it more than three times. If... if I defeat the Beast... will I be able to meet him again? Can we once again fight that scorching slaughter, that bloody battle?
"No... I will!"
He launched himself after the warrior, seized his torso, and drove him into the ground. Just as he was about to tear open his chest, the warrior's body went limp.
He knew this. That technique from underground.
"...?! This is!"
"You seem to have gotten too excited. You finally showed me an opening."
A voice sounded from behind him. Hoarah Loux had experienced countless battlefields. He cast aside the question of how and chose to respond.
But he was too late.
The warrior moved first, driving the Dark Moon Greatsword through his own chest and out the other side.
"Kuhak! You got me good. But... not yet!"
He clutched the blade protruding through his chest in one hand and held it fast. He threw a punch behind him, but his opponent had another move prepared.
"Hup!"
[Ranni's Dark Moon], cast at some unseen moment, descended from overhead. Frostbite took hold, halting his movements for an instant. No matter how hard one struggled, once afflicted by this law of the world, resisting it was impossible.
"It is over, warrior."
As his movements stopped, the light of the Dark Moon recognized by Ranni flared forth, and the sword lodged in him cut through his side. His entrails spilled out, though no blood flowed; it had frozen solid.
"Tarnished..."
"..."
"That strength is why you are king."
"It was a gamble at the end. The old you—no, you as a king—would have seen through it."
"...If I'd known it would end like this, I should have fought more. No... I'd probably run away because it was too much trouble, so perhaps not. What a shame."
With those final words behind him, Hoarah Loux toppled over. An immense mass of runes burst forth, and the victor collapsed as well. Truly, he had been the king of the first Golden Age. The battle had been overwhelming.
A site of grace appeared, and I rested for a time.
I glanced at Goldmask. Though he was already dead, the spread of death had not reduced him to ash. After offering a brief moment of silence, I checked my Flask of Wondrous Physick and equipment before heading toward the Erdtree.
When I reached out toward the Erdtree, which had been opened by the Rune of Death, light blinded my eyes. When my sight returned, I was standing atop a stone platform. Above me hung the shattered Eternal Queen, impaled upon the ring by a spear.
Shortly afterward, the ring broke, and the Eternal Queen fell. She—or rather, he—Radagon, pulled free his hammer and prepared to face me. Darkness had replaced his broken body, and within it was the law of another world: the Elden Ring.
"At last, the final battle. Once this is over, I can keep my promise to Ranni."
At first, Radagon faced the Tarnished with physical prowess alone. Soon, however, he mixed incantations and sorcery into his close-quarters combat. He was certainly powerful and troublesome.
But why? Something was decisively missing from him. He felt like a puppet acting mechanically. His sorcery fused with incantations and his technique were superb, of course. But...
"Hoarah Loux was more intense. He had nothing but strength, yet that alone overwhelmed his weaknesses. Even if strength was all he had, he had a certain something. Even Radahn, consumed by rot, had it."
At those words, Radagon flinched. Then he suddenly stomped his foot, sending golden waves across the entire floor. He teleported backward and raised his hammer above his head, preparing a powerful attack.
Having unintentionally succeeded in provoking him, I quickly jumped over the golden wave. Seeing his [Elden Hammer], I immediately cast [Terra Magica], planted the Haligtree Crest Greatshield into the ground with my right hand, took cover behind it, and invoked [Magic Shield].
"How dare you..."
"?"
"How dare you compare me to that barbarian!!!!!!"
The machine-like man displayed emotion for the first time. Each time he slammed his hammer into the ground, the stone platform shook as though it would collapse. It was only after the third—or perhaps even more—blow that he stopped.
The shield had shattered. Ahead of me, Radagon's body trembled as if he were glitching. Seeing my chance, I rushed forward, drove the Dark Moon Greatsword into his torso, and activated [Moonlight Greatsword] at point-blank range, silencing him.
Radagon collapsed forward. Only then did I relax enough to sink to the floor, but it was not over yet.
The Elden Ring emerged from Radagon's body. The floor flooded with water, and a hand appeared. The impossible sight made my head throb. That hand pulled Radagon into the water, and when it rose again, it held a sword. Instinctively, I knew that sword was Radagon, and my body trembled with fear.
"So it turned a god of the highest order into a sword."
The owner of that hand rose from the water and roared toward the ceiling. The terrain changed. The stone platform vanished, the ground filled with water, and Erdtree roots surrounded us. Then I understood.
This Beast, this thing, was the Erdtree and the Elden Ring itself.
As I despaired while turning Gideon Ofnir's words over in my mind, the sky suddenly cracked apart. It shattered, and a knight fell behind the Beast.
*
So you finally came out, you slippery bastard.
Today is your last day.
But why is that guy just lying there and staring at me?
Praising myself for arriving at precisely the perfect moment, I landed behind the creature. I held a longsword in one hand and a Bastard Sword in the other. After coating both weapons with [Golden Lightning Armament], I hacked away at it, painting my armor with its blood.
[?!!!!!!!!!!]
Thrashing in pain, it flung me away. I landed beside that guy, who only then assumed a fighting stance now that I had arrived.
"What the hell are you? No, it doesn't matter who you are anymore! That is a true god! Humans—Tarnished—cannot kill a god! No matter how strong you are, you are nothing before the great current, before its will!"
He shouted at me in a voice close to a scream. I gave him a pitying look, readied myself again, and charged forward. I had liked the guy, too. What a shame...
I briefly sheathed my longsword and fired [Golden Lightning Spear] into the sky from my empty hand. Clouds that could not possibly form in this place gathered overhead, and golden lightning continued to rain down all around us. Deliberately taking several of those bolts, I activated [Golden Lightning Fortification] and vanished from the Elden Beast's sight.
The Elden Beast found me again without panicking, but I was already in front of its belly. Gripping the longsword in both hands, I drove it in.
The Beast teleported and rose into the sky. Teleported alongside it, I formed footholds from golden lightning and leaped upward, dragging the longsword buried in its belly upward in a long slash. The instant I cut through it, it swung Radagon's sword at me and sent me falling onto the water.
It did not matter. The sky was already full of thunderclouds I had made.
I grinned as the slippery bastard was scorched by my thunderclouds, but it endured the lightning and invoked [Elden Ring]. An Elden Ring sigil formed on the water beneath my feet. I sheathed the longsword, quickly drew one of my four Brass Daggers, and activated its Ash of War, teleporting into the sky near the Beast.
If you're going, we're going together!
The slippery bastard teleported underwater alongside me. Underwater, I invoked [Golden Lightning Spear] in both hands. I would take damage too, but that did not matter. This thing would take far more. I drove the lightning spears into it wildly. Once dozens had pierced it, the creature emerged from the water, grabbed me, and hurled me away.
Then it rose into the sky once more, invoked [Elden Stars] and [Elden Blade], and prepared to use [Elden Ring] again.
"...You're underestimating us!"
The man who had now become nothing more than a neck watched the mythic battle. Drinking the Twiggy Cracked Tear and Cerulean Hidden Tear from his Flask of Wondrous Physick, he gathered his magic and impaled the Elden Beast with dozens of greatblades as large as the creature itself.
An opening!
I sheathed the three Brass Daggers I had intended to use on the Beast as it fell from the sky, pinned by the enormous greatblades. Then I drew my longsword and raised it toward the heavens. The thunderclouds turned the longsword into a lightning rod, and every bolt of golden lightning poured into it until the clouds vanished. The blade shone with blinding, radiant gold.
It is over.
I leaped forward and brought it down upon the Elden Beast in an instant. Golden lightning burst out and enveloped the entire creature. Leaving behind only the vast runes it had amassed and a [Remembrance], the Elden Beast vanished without a trace.
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