Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 467: Forbidden Realm
Kalerius couldn't remember how many times he had come here.

In the distance, the giant golden-red tree with a cracked trunk reaches straight into the sky. The natural energy as rich as mist fills the sky and the earth. Just taking a breath is enough to make people intoxicated.

On the left, an ancient and solemn golden gate rises from the lush forest, with its upper end immersed in the magnificent sea of ​​clouds.

On the right, a huge red door of similar shape stood on the desolate and silent desert, with scorching hot magma flowing on its surface. Occasionally, strange-looking birds and beasts would approach, but as soon as they stepped into the range of heat, their flesh and blood would melt and turn into ashes, falling to the ground.

At this moment, he was standing at the intersection of a network of branches. Ten branches converged behind him, forming a broad, flat, and broken trunk extending forward. At the end, a single eye floating in the air was quietly observing him.

"You are about to die." The one-eyed man sneered.

"Yeah." Karelius didn't argue.

"How does it feel to reject me? For those inexplicable concerns and ambitions, every time you reject them, they will only go further beyond the bottom line, and then trample on your dignity more unscrupulously."

"My dignity is not so cheap that I would jump up like a cat whose tail is stepped on just by some stupid people's criticisms—"

Kalerius seemed to be very familiar with the one-eyed man. His wounded body slowly squatted down and sat down at the intersection of the branches. "Compared to these, I am more unwilling to become your puppet."

"What a shitty puppet!" One-Eye suddenly became furious. "Hetnerius has been eating that bastard Hellenmul for so long. Has Hellenmul become my puppet?"

After cursing, its pupils suddenly turned, and then shook, and said, "No! It was Hellenmur who ate Hetenirus! I am Hellenmur!

"No, I."

"Well, it's so confusing every day..." Kalerius tapped his head in pain, "You always have to argue with yourself for a long time, isn't it annoying?"

"I'll be leaving soon. This time I just need to convince them to reopen the forbidden door for me. The fire source is enough to heal these injuries. You don't need to solicit customers here again and again."

"Forbidden Door? Hahaha." The One-Eye Man laughed creepily. "It's just a passage that draws fire from the furnace veins. Those idiots made it up. It's worthy of being called the Forbidden Door?"

“Boy - you are in the real forbidden door. The road to becoming a god is right in front of you. Why do you still need to look for the forbidden door outside?”

"I've said it before, I don't want to stuff your mess into my head and become schizophrenic like you."

"No! I assure you, you are completely different from those losers! You are the only genius who has come here without any bloodline or external force, just by absorbing fire and fire source. Hahaha, boy, you are a real genius, a real freak!"

"Don't even mention those worthless ancestors. Even the little dragon in Platonsanks and Heraris's house, that monster created by the Emperor's plan, is not even a fraction of yours!"

"You mean Lucia Sanx?" Callelius laughed at himself. "It seems that I haven't visited you for too long, so you know nothing about the outside world. I just lost to him, and it was a terrible defeat."

"So you were injured by the sword wound at his hands, the one-eyed man who was destined to die. Haha, I thought it was that crazy woman Carterpella. She also placed a bet..." The one-eyed man sneered.

"There's nothing strange about it. Of course he should be stronger than you now, because he is not as stupid as you. He has received power far superior to yours since the day he was born. He is a monster that should not exist in the world. He is the ultimate weapon used to kill gods. What about you? You are a bastard who refuses to eat even if food is fed to you, and a stubborn person who is reluctant to walk even if the road is paved under your feet! I really want to kill you and eat you!" At the end of the speech, the one-eyed man, who had basically maintained his rationality, became furious again, spewing out incomprehensible words and wantonly erupting the power of fire. The dark red blazing wind carried the fierce golden magma in all directions, and in an instant, the area within a radius of thousands of miles was reduced to scorched earth!

"I say, although I don't know how much influence Saint Helenmore has in your mind, shouldn't Edmore be considered your son? If you had given this power to him earlier, you wouldn't have to keep nagging me every day."

"Edmur?" The eyeball floating in the air paused.

However, the next second, the light in its pupils did not have a trace of the pride or warmth of a father when he heard about his son's deeds. Instead, it was full of coldness and brutality, as if if it were not for the barrier of the world, it would have wanted to eat it alive!
"Don't mention that damn bastard to me!"

"A scum with my blood flowing through his veins, not only cannot become a hero of the giant race, but has become a cancer used by the termites to shield themselves from the arrows, a rotten sore that parasitizes all giants! He has humiliated you so many times, why haven't you killed him yet! A softie like you who swallows humiliation everywhere, do you think you are worthy of being king?!"

"When I was about to starve to death and was beaten to death, it was the high priest who saved me, took me by his side, and gave me a bite to eat."

After a long moment, Kalerius murmured in a low voice.

"If he hadn't unearthed your treasure from deep in the cemetery, the giants would have always been mountain monsters bullied by other tribes, and I would have always been a lowly creature bullied by everyone. It was he who gave me a chance, and also gave the giants a chance, a chance to step on the top of the world again."

"It was me who brought this opportunity, not him!" roared the One-Eye.

"If it weren't for the obstruction of these rubbish and the ancestors of the termites twenty years ago, the fire and the source of fire would have appeared long ago, and our dynasty would not have fallen to this point! Today, twenty years later, you think you have become the king of giants, but they still regard you as a lowly species!"

"It's been twenty years. Our country has been destroyed for a full twenty years! Nothing has changed, and nothing will change!"

"You want them to reignite the fire for you? Ha, they will only think of imprisoning you who have lost your power, and use your remaining prestige to drive your remaining subordinates to die for them! When you have exhausted the last bit of your remaining energy, they will naturally let that little bastard replace you, and then repeat all the sins they have committed against this country with peace of mind!"

Karelius had already stood up and walked towards the door, with a gloomy expression on his face as he turned his back to the one-eyed man.

The one-eyed man's crazy shouting and cursing still echoed in this world, causing the golden-red leaves to fall like rain, and causing the mountains and rivers to shake and waves to rise!

"You are guilty, you are guilty, but the crime you committed is the greatest crime!"

"When they sucked the last drop of blood from the giants, when your bones rotted into ashes under the throne of Edmur, when our nation was destroyed and our race was annihilated for the last time, you who rejected this power out of fear would be the greatest sinner!"

"——Even so, are you still going to refuse?!"

Kalerius had returned to the starting point of the long road. In front of him was a rotten wooden door that was vaguely visible, half gold and half blood-red.

He turned his back to the one-eyed man and tilted his head as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he remained silent.

When the figure disappeared, the world returned to silence again, leaving only a sigh that belonged to someone unknown.

(End of this chapter)