Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 519 Dragon and Moon

Inside the Volcano God Cult's stronghold, the battle ended much faster than inside the temple. The cult's main force and defensive fortifications, all positioned at the front, never expected that an enemy force would descend from the sky, traversing the insurmountable peaks of North Gmir and attacking them directly from behind.

Not to mention that they were facing the first organized, well-trained, and well-equipped Omen army in history. Under the same conditions, even if the Blazing Sun Legion were to come, it would be difficult to turn the tide. The Serpent Guards had neither weapons and armor to fight back, nor any concept of tactics or military discipline. Even their mutated physique, which they had always relied on, was ruthlessly crushed by the Omen Children. Therefore, from the very beginning of the battle, it was destined to be a one-sided contest.

Within half an hour, eight thousand Night Knights, led by more than ten officers, crushed the entire resistance of the Order's guards and opened up the mountain road to the south, successfully joining up with the vanguard led by For and Lera.

Those die-hard followers of the cult whose mutations were too severe and whose minds were beyond repair were killed on the spot. The new followers who had only recently joined surrendered without hesitation, dropping their weapons. While the explosions were still heard inside the main peak, prisoners were being captured all over the mountainside.

When the soldiers of the Dragon, Moon, and Serpent factions witnessed the Serpent God Egrid, who had been entrenched in the volcano for two thousand years, dragging half of her body as she crashed through the temple, fleeing like a stray dog, only to be beheaded with a single sword strike, leaving behind a pile of broken bones at the bottom of the meteorite crater, the Serpent People's last desperate resistance completely collapsed.

The evil spirits simply sheathed their swords, hung hundreds of meters of rope on their shoulders, walked behind the stunned cult followers, and with a gentle push, the latter would collapse to their knees like powerless puppets, their hands behind their backs to help with the binding.

"Legend has it that at the end of the Resurrection Era, the Queen of Death, Katopella, led the Apostles of Gods to conquer and destroy countless mortal kingdoms. Each time, she would kill the gods of the enemy kingdoms in an instant. When the army of the Tibia Dynasty marched in afterward, they were faced with such a scene. At that time, I was not yet born. Priest Fol, you are knowledgeable and experienced. Did you witness that scene?"

Fol was a little unaccustomed to Lelana's polite and respectful address as a junior throughout the journey. After all, the infamous reputation of this Twin Moon Princess might be unfamiliar to mortals today, but it was far too well-known to those of them who understood the history of the early Golden Era.

Twenty years ago, when she was only fifteen, Lelana led the Second-in-Command, the Knight of Kalia, Mulitir, and hundreds of guards to Shadow Isles. At that time, it was a critical moment when Shadow Isles was closed to the outside world, and this expeditionary force was also sealed off in the Shadowlands, and has been cut off from contact ever since.

As the youngest princess of the Star Moon royal family and the beloved younger sister of the new Queen Lena Laura, Lena's sudden disappearance naturally attracted much attention and speculation.

Some say that the two Moon Princesses fought fiercely for the throne, causing her to run away from home. Others say that Laerna was bewitched by heretics, betrayed the royal family, and went to pursue the footsteps of an evil god. The earliest and most widespread rumor is that the high-ranking officials of the Gold and Star Moon factions intend to arrange a marriage between Princess Laerna and Messermo, the adopted son of the Eternal Queen Marika and the War King Griffith, who is nominally the eldest son of the Gold. Princess Laerna's departure is said to be to seek refuge with her fiancé.

However, only a handful of high-ranking officials in both Longyue and Longyue knew that this last, seemingly plausible rumor was the closest to the truth, but also the exact opposite.

The people of Caria have always pursued the purity and loyalty of emotions and never deliberately engaged in political marriages. Queen Renara never had the idea of ​​marrying her sister into the Golden Royal Family. On the contrary, some people within the Golden Dynasty had long been promoting such topics and colluding with some Caria nobles to create momentum everywhere.

In retrospect, this was probably because some of the golden nobles who were later called the "Old Party" realized early on that the Lake Lienia region was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and that the three parties of Dragon, Moon, and Storm had been allied for generations, which would inevitably bring great difficulties to the final stage of the unification war. Therefore, they wanted to win over and divide the factions in advance. Even if they could not achieve anything, it would be good to make Dragon and Moon feel some resentment.

This matter was originally just a rumor, with some hints circulating in various parts of the border region. The big shots who truly held power in all parties didn't take it seriously. The ancient dragon had just lifted the thousand-year-long blockade after the forbidden war and was still busy restoring normal order. The Golden Tree and the Storm Dynasty were gradually approaching the brink of conflict, with the two continental overlords, old and new, eyeing each other covetously. On Kalia's side, the queen was focused on researching various forbidden magic techniques and, incidentally, on subduing the academy.
Unfortunately, the protagonist of this series of rumors, Princess Lelana of the Twin Moons, is indeed hot-tempered. Without saying a word, she led her people into the Shadowlands, saying that she wanted to fight Messermo to the death to prove her innocence.

Princess Lelana was already a renowned high-ranking hero on the continent, and her entourage of Mulitir and hundreds of guards comprised nearly half of the Kalia royal family's elite forces. They swiftly stormed into the Shadowlands, which was about to be sealed off by the Golden Dynasty, in a single day. By the time Kalia sent a formal letter demanding the Golden Dynasty hand over the prisoners, the Shadowlands were ostensibly completely isolated from the world. Queen Marika's response was that the incident had occurred so suddenly that the Golden Dynasty was caught completely off guard and unable to re-establish the seal in the short term. In the years that followed, Kalia and the Golden Tree clashed several times over this matter, with their envoys banging their fists on the table in a thunderous display, but ultimately, nothing came of it.

For years, Fol thought Princess Lelana was acting on impulse. It wasn't until Lucia was born and he had been by her side for many years that he gradually realized that there was more to the story than met the eye.

Relana, whose talent rivals that of the Full Moon Queen, could not possibly be just a reckless fool acting solely on instinct. Kalia, a nation established for hundreds of years, would not waste a large amount of high-end combat power for such a ridiculous reason. The Twin Moon Princess and her party must have other plans for traveling to the Shadowlands.

The tens of thousands of wolf riders who suddenly appeared on the battlefield of Karen not long ago are the most powerful evidence. The Kalia royal family seems to be mired in the quagmire of noble infighting in recent years, with even the queen herself bedridden and in a precarious state. However, when it comes to getting serious, they play such a trump card that can overturn the local battle situation. The Twin Moon Knights, who are "theoretically" unable to return, silently crushed the Pelum Fortress and completely crushed the New Party's plan to hunt down the Ancient Dragon Temple.

However, facts aside, those rumors from back then still left a deep impression on Forl. In addition, Princess Reylana's behavior along the way could not be described as violent, but rather as overly efficient and effective.

Few of the opponents blocking her path could be accurately counted for kills, because when cleaning up the battlefield, the logistics team mostly had to use shovels to shovel up the rebels, bandits, and snake-man guards. Those who were swept away by the Moonfire Sword Light and left not even ashes were impossible to count.

This is a killing goddess whose style is quite out of place among all the powerful figures in the Kalia lineage. Who would believe that she is not reckless at all and has a very good temper?
Therefore, Fol had been quite polite to Lerana all the way. Upon hearing this, he smiled modestly and said, "When Queen Katopella was clashing with Her Majesty Marika, Fam Azra had not yet emerged from the shadow of the Forbidden War. My sister and I were both confined to the Sky Temple by the High Priest and were not allowed to go out at will, so we did not see the scene Your Highness described."

"However, wars in this world are all more or less the same. They are said to involve millions of people and last for a long time. However, once the ruler of a country suffers a great defeat in front of the masses, even if the people are full of courage, it is difficult for them to continue to fight. Throughout the millennia, no civilization has been able to escape this law."

Lelana carefully wiped the swords in her hands with a white silk handkerchief and said matter-of-factly, "As the ruler of a country, you should protect all people. If the capital is defeated, how can you expect your people to fight to the death for the country? Isn't that ridiculous?"

"Of course, only when people like us are all dead will it be the king's turn to fight to the death. Now that His Highness Lucia Sanx has fallen into the northern border after leading the charge, everyone in your country is worried sick. Although Kalia dares not say that he feels the same way, he is willing to pay any price for this rescue."

Fell understood that Lalana was talking not only about extinguishing the volcano, but also about digging deep into the earth to find the ley lines, and about sending troops north to rescue Lucia when the time was right. Even with the centuries-old friendship between the two families and the engagement between Lucia and Princess Lani, her sincere enthusiasm moved him deeply.

He lowered his eyes and sighed, then said solemnly, "I won't bother with formalities. On behalf of my lord, I thank Her Majesty Renara, Your Highness, and Kalia's comrades."

Lelana sheathed her sword, removed her silver helmet, breathed out a breath in the gentle breeze from the mountaintop, and smiled slightly, saying, "We're all family, so let's not be so formal. In the twenty years I've been in Shadowlands, the world has changed countless times. Even four years ago, probably no one would have believed that the Child of the Omen would one day fight alongside the ancient dragons and the Kalians—my nephew-in-law has already created too many impossibilities. Who can say what the future world will be like under his control?"

(End of this chapter)