Rykard fell silent for a moment.
"My father once told me that I thought too highly of people. Humans are not born with free will; their greatest preoccupation is finding something—someone—to whom they can surrender the freedom they were born with as quickly as possible."
"Radagon said that?" Raven was momentarily stunned.
Rykard swung his blade again and again, sending out arcs of sword qi spanning a hundred meters.
"To the weak, peace is more precious than freedom. They need an object of worship to tell them what is right and what is wrong, to show them how to live, and to promise them happiness after death.
"But the object of worship they seek must be indisputable, something that everyone will immediately agree to bow down before. Because what these poor souls care about is not just finding their own object of worship, but finding one that everyone else believes in and worships too. It must be done together. This need for universal worship has been the primary affliction of mankind since time immemorial.
"For the sake of common worship, people slaughter one another. Once they find their respective gods, they challenge each other: 'Cast away your false gods and worship ours, or you and your gods shall perish!' It will be thus until the end of the world, even long after the true gods have vanished from the earth, for even then, they will kneel before false idols and the world's dictators."
"So that is why Radagon promoted Golden Order Fundamentalism?" Raven finally spoke. "One nation, one religion, one ideology. All things interconnected, converging toward an unchanging core. In this way, society is ordered by rank, and conflict ceases to exist."
Incantation: Law of Causality One of the incantations of Golden Order Fundamentalism. One of the foundational incantations.
Manifests a small ring of causality within the body, which automatically retaliates after receiving a certain number of attacks.
Fundamentalism explains the Golden Order through two principles: Regression and Causality. Causality is the pull between meanings; it is the link that connects all things in a chain of relation.
Incantation: Law of Regression One of the incantations of Golden Order Fundamentalism. One of the foundational incantations.
Heals all ailments and dispels special effects. It also dispels all mimicry and reveals the true form.
Fundamentalism explains the Golden Order through two principles: Regression and Causality. Regression is the pull of meaning; it is the yearning for all things to converge toward an unchanging core.
Rykard nodded faintly.
"I once cherished these teachings as treasures. I used the miracles and punishments of the Erdtree to teach the commoners obedience, letting them surrender their moral judgment to the Golden Law. I made them docile, granting them a quiet, gentle happiness—the happiness of the weak. For my father told me they were born weak.
"I saw this orderly happiness. I also saw them looking at me with fear and trepidation, huddling toward me like chicks nestling against a hen, yet terrified of my wrath. Their minds became like startled birds; their eyes would well with tears as easily as a child's. But with a mere wave of my hand, they would just as easily turn that fear into laughter and sing happy nursery rhymes without a care in the world."
"But now, you no longer wish for things to continue this way?" Raven asked.
Rykard did not answer; he simply raised the Serpent-Hunter spear. He did not chant, yet the harmonies of countless voices echoed out of thin air, singing an ancient Gelmir dirge.
"The body falls, interred at the mountain's foot. How high the heavens, how bitter the winds. Shield and spear held high, the spirit banners fly. Return, O soul, and guard your kin forevermore."
A sword arc even more massive than the last slashed into the serpent's vitals. Rykard spoke calmly.
"There are always those, like these heroic spirits, who are born strong. A single person possessing free will is worth more than a hundred, a thousand slaves who lay their freedom at another's feet and surrender their power of judgment."
Having endured this strike, the Great Serpent threw its jaws wide, its massive body suddenly rearing upright. The surrounding attackers slowed their offensive, wary that this might be the precursor to a devastating ultimate move.
Splash.
A waterfall of serpent blood poured down. It seemed Rykard had severed a major internal artery; under the pressure difference between its interior and exterior, the serpent vomited tons of blood. It collapsed weakly, its head slamming heavily into a pool of its own gore, moving no more.
The crowd fell silent for a heartbeat, then erupted into cheers.
Some simply sprawled out on the ground, laughing and coughing as they gasped for air. Over an hour of fierce combat had passed, and countless attacks had landed on the Great Serpent. Even a small mountain would have been leveled by such force, yet the beast had been incredibly difficult to kill. Had the battle dragged on any longer, many would have collapsed from exhaustion.
Though the serpent's movements were sluggish, consisting only of clumsy counterattacks using its massive weight, the group had exerted every ounce of strength to prevent it from escaping back into the lava lake. Several times, it had nearly broken through. Had the serpent not been entirely devoid of fighting spirit—turning to flee whenever the frontal assault became too painful to bear—the encirclement would have been shattered long ago.
Rykard exhaled a long breath and began walking toward the fallen serpent, step by step.
"Turn back, brother," Raven called out behind him. "Do not go any further."
Rykard's footsteps paused. He looked back and smiled. "Are you going to try and stop me? Why haven't you let the Ancient Dragon lady beside you transform yet?"
"Eh! I've been found out," Lansseax said, startled. "Commander?"
"You once said that you vowed to eradicate all evil in this world so that everyone could live in a just world." Raven stared at Rykard. "Have you forgotten that vow? Or have you been lying to me all along?"
"What do you consider a 'just world'?" Rykard countered.
"Peace, prosperity. A world where the strong cannot oppress the weak."
"In such a place, the castles must be made of gingerbread and the moats must flow with cherry liqueur," Rykard said with a mocking laugh. "The strong will always oppress the weak; otherwise, what would be the point of distinguishing between strength and weakness?"
"Perhaps. Perhaps we have all grown so accustomed to terrible things that we believe there is no other way."
"Since you will not command that Ancient Dragon to fight me, then so be it." Rykard turned away, his interest waning. "You cannot stop me."
Raven watched Rykard approach the Great Serpent. His right hand clenched and unclenched several times.
"In the end, I still can't bring myself to be heartless," he whispered to himself, looking somewhat lonely. Before Rykard could reach the serpent, Raven raised his hand and made a pressing motion in the air.
A few sparks puffed out of the Great Serpent's nostrils.
The Death-menders, those who worshiped the Deathbird, suddenly snapped their heads up and retreated several paces.
The others were startled at first, but then began to mock them. "What's with the fuss? If the big snake isn't quite dead, we'll just give it two more stabs."
Twin wings of ghostflame erupted from the back of a Death-mender, but before they could fully unfurl, they were forced back by a far more powerful force.
Finally realizing something was wrong, the crowd warily backed away from the Great Serpent.
The serpent's eyes, which had been hacked to pieces by the crowd, suddenly began to glow. Then they started to melt. Two brilliant plumes of red-black flame roared out from the eye sockets, stretching over ten meters.
This was only the beginning. Light from the fire began to bleed through every single gap between the serpent's scales.
Boom!
Russet flames erupted, swallowing the Great Serpent's massive body. The surging inferno shot toward the ceiling, punching a hole several hundred feet wide through the thick clouds of smoke and dust.
"The dream is over, Rykard," Raven said.
Rykard gazed silently at the russet flames. The veins on the back of the hand gripping his spear bulged.
"Raven, you are actually greedier than I am," he said softly.
"Is that so?"
"You want to obtain everything, yet you are unwilling to lose anything. You are afraid to even soil your hands. Do you really think you can seize anything that way?"
"Is it only my hands that are soiled?" Raven looked down at his palms. "The things I hold in my hands are already too precious."
"You really are a fool," Rykard sighed deeply. "As am I."
Without looking back, he walked straight into the burning, russet flames.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(161 Chapter - Ongoing)
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