Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 555 Reincarnation
As the flames flickered, the flesh and blood at the severed point on Charlegios's left shoulder surged wildly, and bright red muscle fibers intertwined and grew out, quickly transforming into a new arm.

His eyes were fixed on Lucia, his eyelids narrowed, and he exhaled a breath of foul air, which smelled of blood. He scoffed, "To be able to unleash this level of power without relying on the furnace's power, you always manage to exceed my expectations, Lucia."

“However, how long can you maintain this state?” Carelius glanced at the dying queen in Lucia’s arms and laughed, “This time, no one can help you repair the wound of your origin.”

Lucia didn't even look at him. With one hand, she kept casting life spells on the Queen, and with the other hand, she used her divine power to hold back Sherry, who had already gone mad and was desperately trying to bite him.

The little fox, who had just been thrown far away by the Queen using the power of time and space, was now radiating a silvery aura. Its eyes once again shone with the mysterious brilliance they had when it knocked down Blaze with a single claw. At the same time, its body was rapidly expanding, and its violent strength was so great that even Lucia was having trouble holding it back!

"I'll kill him. You take her and get away." Lucia held Sherry down, conjured a divine shield to protect the queen, and gently placed her on Sherry's back.

The little fox, which had grown to the size of a giant wolf, glanced back at its master, then suddenly turned its gaze and let out a low growl at Chareleus before turning and darting away.

Chareleus watched the man and fox disappear rapidly into the distance, showing no intention of giving chase. Instead, he smiled mockingly and said, "What, have you lost your mind? Since I came to kill you, how could I possibly come alone?"

In response to his words, the spatial barrier in the distance trembled violently, and two other ancestral-level auras rose into the sky like smoke. For a moment, the entire underground world seemed unable to withstand the pressure emanating from several top experts, and began to groan and tremble incessantly!
"Yuno!" Lucia suddenly roared.

"I don't care how deep your hatred is between you and Hiren, or how many injustices you've suffered—if you still want to clear your name of treason and see the light of day again, then protect them and break out. Remember! I'm only giving you this one chance!"

boom!
A roar erupted from thousands of meters away, and the crimson fiery figure once again soared into the sky. Hundreds of bright lines ignited along its veins, transforming it into a furious fire dragon. It opened its massive maw and blasted back the two pursuing ancestors with a single blow!
In the nick of time, the fire-man, whom Lucia called "Yuno," protected Sherry and the Queen and broke through the encirclement, disappearing instantly from the giants' attack range.

Charlegios's expression remained unchanged upon seeing this, but the fist clenched behind his back was already tightly tensed, his palm almost bleeding. This ambush, which should have been foolproof, had too many changes in just a few dozen seconds.

The unrepeatable, all-out attack only injured the Queen of Death, caused an unprecedented bizarre state in Lucia, and resulted in the strange transformation of that useless shadow beast. As for the fiery figure that appeared at the last moment, if that person was the former Third Seat Fire Archbishop Yuno, then the one who had been active in the royal court as a surrendered subject must have been the Second Seat Archbishop Siron.

He had always known that this person was extremely ambitious. It was not surprising that he would resort to a substitution trick in order to obtain the power of the furnace. The fact that Gran Celia had suddenly asked to see him and revealed information about the ley lines also proved this point. But now Lucia had also discovered it.

hum-

A sudden, intense dizziness struck his mind. Having experienced countless battles and possessing tens of thousands of years of combat memories from his one-eyed eye, Chareleus immediately realized that his vision, hearing, and mental perception had clashed violently.

Right in the center of his vision, Lucia, whom he had been intently focused on and locked onto, was still standing in the same spot, his muscles bulging as if he were about to explode at any moment. However, a rapid, almost explosive warning came from his mental vision. The contradictory sense of dissonance was annoying and nauseating!

With a roar, Chareleus unleashed a torrent of fiery energy that coursed through his veins into his eyes, reshaping his perception of reality through the hazy lens of his spiritual senses.

He saw "Lucia" turn into a blurry, flickering mass of light and shadow, with similar shadows replicating themselves from behind the light and shadow into the distance, just like unpredictable light casting thousands of chaotic projections on an uneven, curved surface.

And the destination of all projections is none other than the seventh progenitor, Mosero, ten thousand meters away!

"It's the Void Wings!" Chareleus roared, his explosive figure crashing through the spacetime turbulence stirred up by the Void Wings in pursuit, only to stumble into a vast and ancient domain even more ancient and austere than that of Katarina! Within this realm, the cold, powerful natural divine and magical forces seemed to have solidified into molten iron. Even with the Giant King's full-force charge, he was like a fly trapped in amber, unable to advance an inch for a long time. Meanwhile, Amodia's Soul-Locking Arrow was mercilessly crushed before it even reached a hundred feet, like a reed being ground by a millstone!
By activating the Divine Throne to this extent, Lucia almost exhausted nearly half of his divine power reserves in a single breath, and could only release and then withdraw. However, in that brief moment, he was able to activate the Void Wings, which he had just broken through to the eighth rank during his battle with the Queen, and instantly close in on Mosero, who was the weakest in terms of direct combat power!
The Third Forbidden Spell: The Spell of Immortality – The caster can share their own life force with the recipient, converting it into power, and then receive half of that back in return, thus creating a chain.

Because the effect is so overpowering, the caster not only needs extremely strong vitality as a foundation, but also finds it difficult to use other forbidden spell-level powers at the same time during the release. Even Charlegios, who theoretically has mastered all forbidden spells at the same time, is no exception.

Mosero, together with Adonis, once caused Lucia considerable trouble. Charleus brought Amotea to fight alongside him precisely so that the former could use Soul-Locking Arrow to restrain Lucia from a distance, while he himself, with the buff of the Immortal Curse, could ensure a fatal blow to Lucia!

But now, the chain has not yet been formed. The combination of Void Wings and Divine Throne has created enough tactical space. Charlegios and Amotea are too far away to reach them. Within seconds, Mosero was left to face Lucia, who had activated Death Flash, all alone!
A figure, half-dragon and half-human, shimmering in black and white, flashed before his eyes. After several months apart, the arrogance in Moselo's heart was no longer what it had been before the battle on the Nameless Plains. His pupils reflected the bloodthirsty eyes beneath the bony face. The aura of blood, sulfur, and thunderous fury wafted over him, and his hand gripping the lockblade trembled violently!

He remembers!
He remembered that this monster, disguised as a dragon, had once torn off the chain blade that had slain countless powerful enemies with a single claw, and casually nailed it into his spine. The severe injury that almost severed his waist still caused him a dull ache to this day.

He remembered that the other party had once stomped Adonis, who had used the Aberrant Blood to fuse with the Immortal Curse, under his foot with another claw, and used the Destruction Claw to smash every inch of the latter's flesh and blood, just like raising an iron hammer to smash a slightly stubborn insect.

Giants, like dragons, should stand at the pinnacle of all races and beings!
The progenitor should have sat high on the throne, symbolizing the end of the evolution of the giant lineage, looking down on any powerful enemy in the world, never wavering, never retreating, never fearing!

But when exactly did it begin that even an ancestor like him had his spine broken and his courage crushed, so that when faced with this raging torrent of lightning, he couldn't even muster the slightest courage to resist?
Was it from the moment His Majesty was seriously injured and merged with the terrifying will deep within the Forbidden Gate, becoming a completely different person from before? Or was it from the moment when the royal court's 300,000-strong army was routed head-on by the enemy with a mere 10,000 men, and he and Hilbel were defeated and fled?
No, it doesn't seem like either.
It all began when he betrayed and abandoned his comrades on the nameless plains, and watched with his own eyes as Adonis, that stinking rock from the latrine, lay amidst tens of thousands of giant corpses, crushed to dust by the Claw of Destruction.

It all began when he heard the phrase "The only thing I am loyal to is the future of this country," but found it empty and laughable, and his mind was filled with thoughts of desperately hiding among the fleeing army to escape back to the royal court.
Claws tore apart the hesitant lockblade, iron slag pierced the tired and numb face, and the arm that could once barely hold its own against a few punches broke and shattered in the face of the immense force of a landslide and tsunami. The roars and cries of anger from His Majesty and his comrades seemed incredibly distant.

Afraid? Now it seems that I'm not afraid anymore.

Instead, he suddenly felt incredibly clear-headed—since the golden meteor descended into the world, the giant race had worked tirelessly for two thousand years, using the blood of countless members of their race to forge a sword, a sword powerful enough to cut through thorns and brambles and pave a path to godhood for future generations.

Now, the sword is almost finished, only needing the final step of tempering and rebirth, but at this moment it has run into another, even stronger sword.

He couldn't hold on and became one of the first cracks to appear. After him, countless other cracks spread to every corner of the royal court.

Thus the sword broke, the man died, and the clan was wiped out.

His vision began to spin and darken. He saw his body explode like a blood-red firework, and he also saw His Majesty, surrounded by a sky full of flames, colliding with that dragon shadow once again.

Will we win? I don't know, and it doesn't matter anymore.

I used to think that I could make others the price for my ascension to godhood, but now I have become the price for others, though it is by no means the final price.

This is the truth of the world: he's tired and wants to rest.

(End of this chapter)