Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 497 Winner Takes All
In the imaginations of Ratan and the others, if they were fighting so fiercely in the relatively safe battlefield of Nymgford, then what kind of dangerous predicament must Lucia, trapped in the far north ice plains facing an army of hundreds of thousands of giants, be facing? Even if such a question only flashed through their minds, it was enough to make them worry.

However, Lucia himself has been mired in a kind of almost neurotic self-doubt ever since his last deep conversation with Politics, and has yet to recover.

At this moment, he was lying on the table, his arm supporting his chin, his eyes wide open, carefully watching the every move of his shadow beast.

Shirley grabbed the chicken leg bone with one paw, her mouth bigger than her head, and tore off the perfectly cooked piece of leg meat in one bite. Then she licked the corner of her mouth, which was covered in soup, with her little tongue, and looked at her owner, who had been acting strangely lately, with a strange expression.

Lucia stared at her blankly for a while, then nervously glanced around to make sure no one was watching before moving closer and whispering in a barely audible voice:

".mom?"

Whether it was psychological or not, at that moment, Lucia seemed to see that mysterious light shining again in Sherry's equally icy blue pupils!
She pushed off with her hind legs, took two steps forward, and opened her lips with difficulty to face Lucia.
Then I let out a chicken-flavored burp.

"Depend on!"

Lucia slammed his fist on the table and slapped himself in anger.

It's all that old scoundrel Boleyn's fault. He had nothing better to do than bring up the fact that "Sherry looks like the corpse of His Majesty the Dragon God," as if he had actually seen his mother's corpse!
In fact, since the dragon god Horatis disappeared into the black hole created by Esther, his whereabouts have remained unknown, and even the ancient dragon race itself cannot determine whether the dragon god is alive or dead.

If the Dragon God has already fallen, then why can the Ancient Dragon Prayer still be used normally?
It should be noted that when the Moon Goddess was severely injured, all the magicians in the entire border region, except for those from the Origin School, suffered a backlash from the primordial magic at the same time. This was even when the magic was not strongly bound to the Moon Goddess's belief system. If it were the wild gods of the Resurrection Era, it would be common for believers to suffer divine power explosions and be passively buried with their gods as they fell.

Conversely, if the Dragon God had not perished, why did he remain indifferent to the dragon race for thousands of years, never responding to any calls from the ancient dragon people?

Based on his several encounters with his mother across time and space, as well as the blessing that came upon him at the end of the Battle of Shattered Stars, Lucia was almost certain that his mother was not dead, and Politics believed this as well.

But at the same time, Borelius was horrified to discover that Sherry's primordial aura was exactly the same as that of the Dragon God, yet it also exuded a kind of incomplete and resentful death aura.

Having met the Dragon God countless times and witnessed the ancient god of death firsthand, Borelius had more authority to speak on this matter than any other dragon in the world. Leaving aside practical understanding, judging solely from the aura he sensed, Sherry truly seemed like a piece of flesh torn from the Dragon God's corpse.

Considering the unusual concern that Katpela had shown for Sherry, Lucia guessed that Sherry was very likely connected to her mother in some way. He strictly instructed Borelius to keep it a secret while trying to "confront" Sherry, but the result was as unsatisfactory as it is now.

I've really gone mad! I actually called a useless fox I've raised for four years "Mom." If anyone heard that, would I still be able to sit on the throne?
Just then, a familiar voice suddenly rang out from inside the room.

"Although I don't know what prompted you to make such an abstract decision, based on common sense, I suggest you check if your brain was damaged by Adonis last time and hasn't fully recovered yet."

Katpera's voice remained as ethereal and alluring as ever, like a gentle breeze carrying a light drizzle through a flower-filled forest—so close yet so distant, like a mirage.

"If your sister Lance had seen what just happened, she'd probably lament that the Dragon King's throne had been entrusted to the wrong person, hahahaha."

She couldn't help but burst into laughter at the end, but Lucia had no intention of joking with her. With a dark face, he suddenly punched the void!
In an instant, the place where his fist struck felt like it was stuck in quagmire, with a dense and heavy sense of resistance coming from all directions. However, it was no longer like the sword he had thrust at Carterpera before the Battle of Shattered Stars, which had been unable to advance an inch.

Ripples of spacetime surged outwards, and Katpera staggered out of the void, quickly taking two steps back, angrily saying, "Are you crazy?" Lucia chuckled at the sight, tapping the side of his head with his other hand, and said, "How did Your Majesty know that my brain was damaged last time and hasn't fully recovered yet?"

Carterpera: "."

Before she could react, Lucia stood up, brought her a chair, and then turned to pour tea, saying, "The conditions here are a bit poor, there's no sofa and no good tea. Your Majesty, please make do with this place. Speaking of which, I haven't had a chance to thank you for helping me heal my injuries last time."

"I—" Before Katpera could argue, Lucia came over with a cup of steaming black tea and handed it to her without saying a word.

She noticed that for a moment just now, a cold current emanated from his palm, which perfectly cooled the scalding tea to the perfect temperature. Now, holding the porcelain cup, all that remained was warmth.

Her chest heaved deeply, thinking that she was thirsty after the long journey, and that she could drink first and then scold her. Just as she bent down to drink, there was a loud thud on her knee, and the fluffy, round Sherry had already jumped onto her lap as if they were old friends, wagging her tail happily.

Katpera's heart skipped a beat, and her last bit of anger vanished. She took a sip of tea with one hand and gently stroked Shirley's soft ears and smooth fur with the other, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.

Lucia observed her expression and also watched Sherry's reaction.

Aside from Blazer, Sherry was indeed close to most people around him, but Katarina seemed different. They looked like they'd known each other for a long time; Katarina's gaze towards Sherry, besides warmth, seemed to carry a hint of nostalgia?

“There’s no need to use her to test my reaction anymore,” Katpera suddenly said. “You’re not that kind. If it weren’t for the fact that mortal drugs don’t work on me, you probably would have drugged my tea to extract information from me, right?”

“Not at all,” Lucia also picked up a cup of black tea and took a sip. “My gratitude is genuine. Without His Majesty’s help last time, let alone my current strength, it would be a question whether I could even repair the Creation of Origin.”

"However, since His Majesty needs my help, yet he is keeping everything to himself and refusing to reveal any information, it certainly doesn't benefit our cooperation, does it?"

"I need your help?" Katpera immediately retorted sarcastically. "Helping me is helping you. In the end, my help is still essentially helping you. Why do you make it sound like I'm begging you?"

Lucia remained noncommittal, intently studying the trajectory of the tea leaves floating in the cup, and said without looking up, "Your Majesty, take your time thinking. There's no rush. The teapot is right over there, and refills are free."

After a long pause, Katarina let out a long breath and said, "If you want to ask about Sherry, I can tell you clearly that she is now just an ordinary Nokron Snow Moon Fox. Apart from having a tiny bit of divine power from His Majesty Horary within her body, which makes her a little smarter and immortal, she is no different from any other fox."

"As for the future, as I said, only when you personally arrive at Noklonn, at the place of her birth, will her destiny possibly change because of you—in the end, she is just a key. Whether the key can unlock the door in the end, and where the door will lead, I don't know, and it's no use asking me."

Lucia gently tapped the lid of the cup, then looked up and asked, "So, what brings Your Majesty here today?"

"Something happened in the Sacred Tree Forest. Two first-generation giants died there without warning, and their bodies were never found."

“Charles needs to find out who did it and what methods they used. I know the person who did it wasn’t one of your subordinates, so I naturally want to see which distinguished guest is hiding on this tiny gambling table, trying to bypass us and take all the winnings.”

(End of this chapter)