In the face of powerful foes, be without fear. Be brave and upright, that the Lord may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to thy death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong.
At the Royal Moongazing Grounds within Caria Manor, she had stood with the Full Moon Queen's sword resting upon her shoulder, repeating those vows word for word. Her cape had been drenched in the silver glow of the moon; from that moment on, she was a Carian Knight.
She had received no formal education in letters and, at the time, did not even understand the meaning of those archaic, flowery words. She had sought knighthood only for honor—to bring fame to the wolf-riding Albinaurics of her village. She was tired of sleeping in ramshackle wooden huts during the rain and tired of hunting beasts in the mountains. She believed her skill with the bow deserved a grander stage.
The reality lived up to her expectations. In the knight's training camp, her performance far outstripped her peers, and she completed the full course of knightly training at a record-breaking pace.
According to regulations, even after completing training, one had to wait for a long time in the rankings to be formally dubbed. After all, the Carian Kingdom was at peace; the demi-humans and trolls had already sworn fealty to the Queen, and there were no bandit groups left to cull for merit.
Unable to wait, she had openly challenged her own old instructor to a duel unto death to seize his title. On the tilting ground, the old knight fought tenaciously, but she fired three consecutive arrows that stripped the helm from his head without harming a hair on him, forcing the old man to concede on the spot.
She believed she had won beautifully and with great honor. The spectators had cheered, showering the arena with flower petals to praise her mercy. However, in the armory afterward, the sight of the old knight—his thin white hair disheveled, his face buried in a towel as he wailed—shook her for the first time. She sensed, albeit vaguely, that the old knight had stood on that field for stakes far higher than hers, while she, the young Loretta, had fought for nothing more than vanity and easy coin.
It was only a few days ago, when the Full Moon Queen abandoned her and she sat sobbing in that cramped cell, that she finally understood why the old knight had wept so bitterly in the changing room that day.
The past felt like a dream. Raven lay alone on the cold ground, and she could only kneel beside him, her gauntlet touching his pale face, powerless to do anything.
For the first time, she had found a Lord she was determined to follow. For the first time, she had made a lifelong vow. She should have entered a dreamlike time of happiness.
And yet—why? Why had it come to this?
"Spare my wife, I beg you—" "Run! Just run!" "Help my father!"
Someone was crying out to her for help. Instinctively, she hurled her war sickle, pinning a knight who was swinging a slaughtering blade to the ground.
She rode forward and retrieved her sickle. Ahead, a tide of gold-armored knights surged down the opposite slope, wantonly massacring the scattered civilians.
Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong.
Her magical greatbow sang, striking down three Leyndell knights in quick succession. Now, every eye turned toward her. The lead knight blew a horn, and the Leyndell forces began to muster. With the thunder of hooves and a collective roar, they surged toward her like a golden gale.
In the face of powerful foes, be without fear.
She was no longer a Carian Knight. Today, she fought simply as Loretta of the Albinauric Village.
Loretta gripped her Silver War Sickle tightly. Glintstone mana radiated from her form, and in an instant, she transformed into a burning star. She charged "upstream," directly into the path of the countless Leyndell knights whose golden armor had merged into a literal river of gold.
In that heartbeat, the Golden River was severed!
Lances snapped and spun through the air; shields and plate armor shattered, flying into the sky alongside broken bodies. The Leyndell knights were scattered like sand and stone kicked up by a violent impact at the exact point where Loretta pierced their line. Within moments, twenty-nine Leyndell knights had been unhorsed, while Loretta herself had sustained two spear thrusts and a sword wound.
Though their companions' bodies and weapons fell like rain, the Leyndell knights did not break. The knights on the flanks chanted holy incantations, continuously closing the circle. Their formation acted like a massive beast, shifting its shape to swallow and crush the foreign object that had forced its way into its gut.
Clang!
With a thunderous boom—like a ship striking a reef in the center of a lake—Loretta's momentum finally halted. The path she had carved behind her was instantly filled by the enemy. She was now standing at the very center of an encirclement of hundreds of knights.
"It is a regret that, as a knight, I cannot face a hero such as yourself in a one-on-one duel. But this is a battlefield. I must obey orders and use numbers to my advantage," a Tree Sentinel spoke in a low, heavy voice. He tightened his grip, and the humming vibration of his Golden Halberd stilled.
Loretta said nothing. A circle of magical glintswords manifested around her, spinning to hold back the knights surging from behind. In her hands, she already held her greatbow, with two massive magical arrows notched to the string.
The Tree Sentinel's pupils constricted. He abruptly raised his Erdtree Greatshield before him. The fortress-like shield erupted with a blinding golden light, as if a miniature sun were rising in his hands.
Golden Retaliation. A skill that nullifies all sorceries and incantations, returning them with the power of Gold. This peerless defense was enough to reflect even the lightning of the Ancient Dragons.
The electric light discharged from Loretta's greatbow left a searing trail across the retina as it silently collided with that rising sun.
The Tree Sentinel braced his shoulder against the shield, his body—blessed by the Erdtree—erupting with monstrous brute force. Yet, both man and horse were pushed backward by the force of the light, the horse's hooves carving deep furrows into the earth.
"Haaaagh! Raaaaagh!" With the Tree Sentinel's roar, the "sun" expanded further, completely swallowing the electric bolt. A jet of blazing golden essence reflected outward like a solar flare, striking Loretta squarely in the chest.
Seeing the mist of blood spray from the gaps in Loretta's visor, the Tree Sentinel caught his breath and shouted harshly, "You cannot defy the power of the Erdtree!"
He raised his Golden Halberd, intent on taking the head of this formidable foe. However, halfway through the swing, the shaft of the halberd slipped from his weakened grip.
The Tree Sentinel's eyes widened. He reached out to catch the falling weapon but missed; even his shield slipped from his grasp and hit the dirt.
Only then did he feel the terrifying hollowness in his chest. He looked down to see a head-sized hole where his heart should have been. He shifted his gaze to see a small blade of grass peeking through the jagged breach in the very center of his Erdtree Greatshield, its stem swaying as if mocking him.
"How... the power of the Erdtree is invincible..." he whispered. His mountain-like frame tottered for a moment before he tumbled headlong from his warhorse.
Loretta pressed a hand against the dented section of her breastplate. Her ribs were broken, and the caved-in armor was crushing her chest cavity. Every blood-scented breath she took was accompanied by agonizing pain.
The surrounding Leyndell knights finally began to waver. The Tree Sentinel's swift defeat was beyond their comprehension.
"Great is Caria!"
The cry of a charge echoed nearby. The knights on the outer edge of the encirclement looked back. Over a dozen light-armored cavalrymen were shifting from a column into a spread-out formation, charging toward them in a crane-wing array.
A portion of the Leyndell knights wheeled their horses to meet the newcomers, while others chose to prioritize striking down Loretta, who was still trapped in the center. With their massive numerical advantage, the Leyndell knights were far from defeated, but a slight chaos had begun to take root. No one had the mind to hunt fleeing civilians anymore.
"Useless trash!" A Tree Sentinel Commander leaped his horse down from the hilltop, a tyrannical aura mixed with red Dragonbolt spiraling around him. "Go and eliminate those light horsemen. This Carian Knight is mine."
On a distant hill, the half-wolf warrior held his telescope, his voice unable to hide his shock. "Princess, who is that?"
"A knight," Ranni said softly as she watched Loretta's silhouette become submerged by the Leyndell knights. "A true knight."
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(48 Chapter - Ongoing)
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