Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 521 Vulnerable

The news of Lucia's personal trip to the Sacred Tree Forest was kept extremely secret. Apart from his personal guards who were responsible for relaying the order, only Neo, Borelius, and Rosalind, who were in charge of the military affairs of the three major defense zones of Sol, Frozen Lake, and North Pass respectively, knew about it at first.

After Contingency Plan No. 3 was activated, Politics temporarily took over the overall situation and sent the royal guards who remained at the frozen lake to send a message to Oreg on the western front. However, the speed was obviously not as fast as Lucia himself. Therefore, Oti's side would not know Lucia's movements for at least two days.

This arrangement was based on two considerations: first, to prevent the main force of the Giants' Court from suddenly advancing north after confirming Lucia's movements on the eastern front, threatening the Frozen Lake region, which was still in the process of integration; and second, to appropriately reduce Charlegios's vigilance regarding the Sacred Tree Forest incident, otherwise, once he learned that Lucia himself had personally taken action, it was hard to guarantee that a war between the two kings would not break out on the spot.

Although Lucia was not afraid to confront Chareleus head-on, his goal was never to defeat him, but to kill him and end the war in the North. Therefore, it would be unwise to act rashly before figuring out the secret of how the giant king recovered from his injuries and regained his strength, and before he had the power to make a decisive move.

Under these circumstances, the two of them bypassed the entire northern coastline, including Thor and Ottina. It was only thanks to Frostflame's unparalleled speed that they managed to reach the northwest of Ottina tonight. The road ahead not only required them to avoid giant scouts, but also to avoid being discovered by their own cavalry as much as possible.

In the darkness of night, Lucia's spiritual vision unfolded like water.

In his prime, he can now extend his mental power hundreds of miles away to capture the large-scale movements of legion-level targets. However, if he wants to accurately lock onto individual targets that are good at stealth, such as scouts and assassins active on the front lines of the two armies, the range has to be narrowed down to within a kilometer.

He looked up at the dark starry sky. At this distance, neither his eyesight nor his mental power could detect the forbidden seal that isolated the northern border, but he was certain that it still existed.

It was this that blocked all mental links within and outside the North, preventing him from contacting his subordinates in the Forbidden Research Society, sensing the stars, and even using the star positioning ability he had learned from Esther's forbidden inheritance.

After creating two clones of Estelle, he had a deeper understanding of the forbidden inheritance. If it weren't for the interference of the Jedi Seal, he would be able to "overlook" the main activity trajectory of the royal army with the help of the stars.

With the combined strength of the elite Northern Expeditionary Army, the Stormtroopers of Thor, the Samir Clan, and the people and soldiers of the North, they could easily overwhelm the Royal Court Giants without any external assistance, thanks to their superior vision. However, in the current situation, victory would undoubtedly be much more complex and brutal.

"If we were in each other's shoes, could you destroy Charlegios in ten days?" Katpela, walking beside him, also looked up at the starry sky and suddenly asked.

Lucia paused for a moment, then shook her head and smiled faintly, "That thought crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. Assumptions like putting yourself in someone else's shoes are meaningless."

"The Giants' Royal Court has the Rune Source and the Jedi Seal as its reliance, and I also have more trump cards. Everyone has benefited from our ancestors. If he had all the resources and abilities I have today, he might not be any worse than me."

Katopella shook his head dismissively and said, "His ability to suddenly recover from near-death injuries and even overturn the entire Council of Giants is obvious to anyone with a brain. It's likely that his 'never-awakened' forbidden spell ability is the problem. Nine times out of ten, it's the fire god Hethenes who's interfering behind the scenes. Now, even he himself isn't sure how much of it he's still capable of."

“But you—” She glanced at Lucia, then casually looked away, saying indifferently, “You inherited a lot of resources from the Emperor Project, including a share from the Ancient Dragon Dynasty, a share from the Eternal City, a share from the Moon Goddess, and now a share from me. But what we gave you wasn’t power, but a series of opportunities to gain power.” “Like me, I lent you the Law of Life and the Fated Death because they are now more powerful in your hands than in mine. Of course, your current crude way of using them is truly appalling. If it were Marika, she would dream of this power and use it countless times better than you—but it’s useless. I’d rather feed them to the dogs than let that bitch have them.”

"Besides that, the Dragon Bloodline is your own. All the other divine arts, magic, combat skills, swordsmanship, including the abilities of your enemies that you analyzed using the Memory Battlefield, are essentially the result of your own cultivation. No matter how omnipotent the Emperor's Plan and the Memory Battlefield may seem like cheat codes, they can only do a very limited part, such as taking a piece of runes from your enemies, or recording some data before their undead dissipate, and then turning them into your own abilities through your 'analysis'."

Lucia knew that if Katarina had seen his "past life" in the time-space deduction, she would probably blurt out the word "cheat code," but in essence, it meant the same thing.

He hadn't really understood the mechanics of the Memory Battlefield before, and upon hearing this, he frowned and said, "If that's the case, why does the Memory Battlefield make me make a choice every time I analyze it, forcing me to choose only one or two abilities from a variety of options?"

"I've said it before, it's not a panacea. Although they certainly hoped it would do exactly what you described when they created it, it's impossible—"

"This ability to allow the dead to exert their last bit of energy before they vanish into nothingness comes from Hephaestus, the legendary ancient god of death, an ancient being from the same era as your parents and the god of fire. Ah, the first god to fall by my sword in the terrifying stories of the Queen of Death."

"Sounds impressive, right? But Hephaestus's power is laughably weak compared to his authority. Let alone comparing him to the Dragon God and the Giant God, he wouldn't even stand a chance against these demigods in the mortal world. Rather than being a 'god,' he is more like the initial embodiment of the authority of death in this world, with his own personality, will, and wisdom almost nonexistent."

"The Emperor Project used a portion of His authority, but even He Himself could not replicate all the power from the dead. Otherwise, by absorbing the countless generations of powerful beings who had fallen between ancient times and the Forbidden War, He would have been invincible."

"Your so-called analytical ability is just to imprint the target's ability as much as possible, turning it into the 'destiny star' you see in the memory battlefield, and then through repeated simulation and tempering, to reproduce a part of it in you. This process is extremely complex. The authority of the Grim Reaper only plays a small part in it. The real power comes from the advanced technology of the Ancient Dragon Dynasty and the Eternal City."

"For those living targets, as long as you keep fighting them repeatedly in the battlefields of reality and memory, you will accumulate more and more data, and you will always have the opportunity to acquire most of their abilities, except for a very few special abilities that are limited by talent and bloodline. As for those who died, the chance to imprint data is only once, as fragile as a sand painting left by a twig on the beach. It would be good if you could replicate three or four tenths of it."

"I see." Lucia finally understood where that damned multiple-choice question in the memory battlefield came from; wanting everything was impossible from the very beginning.

"So, as I said, what we gave you was never simple, direct, or readily available power, but rather a series of opportunities to gain power. To have reached this point in such a short time has already exceeded the expectations of those who left you this legacy, and it is also the reason why I reluctantly think highly of you."

Carter Pella stroked the little fox, who had fallen asleep again, and glanced at Lucia once more. "It's a pity that your understanding of power is still too shallow. Not only can you not control a law-level weapon, but you also haven't been able to simplify the complex and form your own system."

"Only when you can fuse all the vast knowledge and skills into one will you understand how vulnerable a fake like Chareleus, who only possesses strength, is."

(End of this chapter)