Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 553 Two Queens
“It’s because of the rebellion launched by Beller after the Forbidden War—” Lucia explained. “He was the previous generation of the Emperor Project, and should have been the strongest guardian of the dragon race before me, but he turned into the most terrifying calamity in the history of the Ancient Dragon Dynasty because of his own selfish desires.”

“Belle, I think I’ve heard this name before. Is it Marika? No, it must be in the memory of some high-ranking official in charge of the secret service?” The Queen frowned. “It seems to be connected to that Shadowland. Unfortunately, my Divine Descent technique is not as complete as it was back then. Much of the information I extracted from the soul has become fragmented and difficult to piece together.”

“It’s alright, we’ll meet again someday,” Lucia said nonchalantly. “Let’s continue with your story. You couldn’t get in touch with Sky City, but you did manage to contact Marika?”

“She contacted me,” the Queen sighed deeply. “After three hundred years, she has changed much more than I imagined. It was through her that I learned why the Witch Village had become ruins and everything that had happened to our people.”

“Those ‘loyal servants’ who once served the sorcerers, who relied on our teachings and blessings to move from the primitive age of eating raw meat and drinking blood to the civilized horned people, immediately changed their stance after the forbidden war, claiming that our faith in the moon goddess brought disaster to the world, and wielding the weapons we taught them to forge, launched a massacre against the sorcerers.”

"They used the most cruel torture to slaughter the men in the village who were responsible for war and protection, and the most filthy humiliation and torture to harm the witches who were responsible for preaching and prayer. After confirming that the lowly and inferior bloodline of the Horned People could not usurp the power of the witches through intercourse, they were enraged and used long whips studded with teeth to whip the witches' bodies to pieces. Then they forcibly stuffed them into earthenware pots that were too short to hold half of their bodies. They chopped up the flesh and blood of other tribesmen with kitchen knives and mixed it with the blood of the Horned People to fill the gaps in the pots. Finally, they cast carefully designed spells in order to turn them into puppets who could use the power of the witches but were controlled by them. They called it helping them to cleanse their sins and be reborn as new good people."

The queen's voice was as cold as ice, her words as calm as reciting the most straightforward and simple historical records. However, Lucia, who was now very close to her, understood that this was the true face of the Queen of Death, filled with hatred and rage.

A true king never acts hysterically; his wrath will only cause millions of his enemies to lie dead and blood to flow for miles.

"The last wizards barely survived for a few years by relying on the relics of the Eternal Age. The young children in the village watched their older brethren fight to the death outside the magical barrier, being captured and slaughtered wave after wave, until they too grew up to be among the elders, following in the footsteps of their predecessors and dying just like them."

"The number of sorcerers dwindled, and the area that the barrier could protect became smaller and smaller. Until the last day, the barrier collapsed, and the old woman, holding two five-year-old girls tightly, died under the horned people's butcher's knife. Marika, who had barely escaped from the mouth of the star beasts and returned to the village after many years, saw this hellish scene."

"Heh." She suddenly laughed as she said this.

"The moment they saw her, the Horned People went mad. They thought they had already taken all the inheritance from the Witcher Village, but they never expected to see a saintess chosen by the Moon Goddess in person. They dropped their swords and rushed forward with clubs and ropes, their eyes red, trying to capture her alive, but they were cut down in droves, like a bunch of stupid ants who didn't know they were going to die."

"Unfortunately, Marika was just as weak as I was back then. She couldn't possibly slaughter all those filthy, stinking bastards on her own. When they sent out batches of divine beast warriors created through sacrificial rituals, she ultimately couldn't withstand them."

"Just as she was about to be captured by the horned people, in her final despair, her soul connected with a 'supreme' great being."

The sounds around him suddenly stopped. Lucia barely snapped out of her reverie, looking at the Queen's complex expression, and guessed, "Alpha?"

The Queen shook her head. "It was the newly split chaotic will, which we later called—Omega, the god of madness and destruction."

Lucia froze abruptly. In that instant, all the interconnected yet contradictory clues finally found a reasonable explanation. The inexplicable life law that Kapperra possessed and the blood debt she refused to acknowledge; the Forge Prayer of the Godskin Apostle, clearly belonging to the side of life; the assassination techniques of the Black Knife Assassin, inextricably linked to destined death; and the one percent of "insignificant" lies among the many truths Marika had told her.
From the very beginning, Katpela was the eternal queen chosen by Alpha, while Marika, who ignited the flames of revenge in despair, was the original queen of death!

"So, do you understand now?" A smile appeared on the Queen's lips, but her expression was tinged with a faint sadness. "Back then, there were very few survivors who knew of our existence. She concealed her true name and led her subordinates to kill Hephaestus, the ancient god of death who had been crippled after the Forbidden War. Afterward, she slaughtered all sorts of wild gods who sprang up like mushrooms after rain in the era of revival, absorbing their faith and plundering their power. The black-sword assassins under her command are the true 'Godskin Apostles'."

"When we met again, I had already established the Tibia Dynasty with Alpha's help, and I was surrounded by a group of apostles who practiced the Furnace War Technique. I never imagined that the 'Queen of Death' who was feared on the other side of the continent would be my only true friend in this life."

"She took me back to the village of sorcerers once again, and used divine power to temporarily shield me from the prying eyes of Alpha and Omega. Then she proposed a plan—she wanted to combine the power of our two laws to reforge the Primordial Ring, and then use this power to kill the gods!"

Lucia had already guessed what was going to happen next, and said, "Of course you agreed to her."

"Yes, of course I agreed."

"After all, I've fantasized countless times about what it would be like to start over. I would rather it was me who was abducted by the Star Beasts and she who was rescued and became the Eternal Pope in the Underworld. She has always been better than me and would definitely have done better than me. She would never have ended up like me, unable to handle the endless infighting between the various factions and forced to leave in the end."

"So when I have a choice, I will definitely choose to believe her."

As she spoke, her eyes shone as if the days when the two saints studied and fought side by side were just yesterday.

But in the end, she suddenly fell silent, lowered her head, and said softly, "But she later told me that the fingers were far more terrifying than I had imagined, and that I was a necessary sacrifice in this revenge against the gods."

"She saw the potential of the Law of Life, and believed that the border of the resurrection era was powerless to resist the supreme will. All she could do was use the Law of Life to achieve godhood, continue to lie low under Alpha's nose, and wait for a better opportunity. So after contacting me, she secretly told Alpha everything. When the plan was implemented, she struck me from behind and seriously injured me. At the same time, she joined forces with Alpha to seal away her former 'master' Omega."

"Fortunately, the God of Mad Fire was not entirely useless. At the last moment, he entrusted a wisp of unsealed power to me, helping me escape the encirclement and also preserving a chance for himself to escape. This is the source of my destined death."

The Queen took out a folded black silk from her bosom and gently unfolded it, saying, "These eyes, which once housed the life runes, were gouged out by her own hands back then. And I, too, had to pick up the god-slaying methods that once belonged to her, and survive with the apostles by killing wild gods. We wove so-called 'god skins' to wear, and with the help of their mixed and incomplete laws, we used a long time to neutralize and suppress the black flame curse that Marika had cast. This is the whole story about the God Skin Cult."

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” she turned to look at Lucia and smiled sweetly. “The ruthless and invincible Queen of Death you imagined never existed, at least not me. What stands before you is just a foolish woman who couldn’t defeat the Fallen Star Beast, couldn’t quell the Eternal Strife, and was ultimately defeated by her best friend. She can only barely salvage a shred of dignity by resorting to suicide.”

(End of this chapter)