Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1835 1807. The Immortal Elden Ring

Given the current strength of the Golden Dynasty, even though Lan En has experienced many worlds, only a few histories he knows can compare to it.

The First and Second Ages of the world of Arda. Powerful elven lords were able to fight against the gods and prevail, slaying evil.

In the world of fire, before the primordial flame had weakened, the gods of fire stood tall, including the witches of Izaris who found the soul of the king in the primordial flame, and the primordial dead, Nit.

Lan En had never witnessed the prosperity of that divine era; they were perhaps even more powerful than the Golden Dynasty, which had only stood for a few hundred years.

But as time passed and the world changed, those stories became legends on parchment.

But Rodel was still standing firmly beneath the golden trees.

This led to the fact that, although Lan En felt that the strength of the experts on both sides should be roughly the same.

For example, [Gold] Godwin, and [Shattered Star General] Rataen, who is praised as the 'strongest demigod', should be about as strong as the [Nameless King] who has been training hard at the top of the Ancient Dragon in the Flame World.

However, the examples also show that these top performers have differences in retention rates.

The Golden Dynasty was still at its peak, but the gods of the Fire World were on the verge of extinction due to the weakening of the primordial flame.

Many once-powerful gods exhausted themselves in the pursuit of the primordial flame.

For example, there's Ocelotus, the Holy King of Lothric, who drove himself mad. He ruled Lothric during the fire apocalypse, forcibly maintaining the linking of the fire for tens of thousands of years. His power is probably the greatest among the current fire gods.

What Lan En found regrettable, yet also fortunate, was that by the time Lan En met him, he had already driven himself mad and deteriorated.

For example, Gwyn, the "Lord of the Sun," the god-king who ushered in the Age of Fire, ultimately became the first Flame-Bearer of the Fire World, the "Lord of Cinder." He burned himself to ashes.

However, the Golden Dynasty... so far, Lan En has not seen any signs of problems with the foundation upon which they depend for survival.

As long as the foundation of their existence remains intact, deities can always maintain their existence for a long time.

Not to mention the power of the Golden Dynasty, which is inherently as constant and unchanging as gold.

"Do you know what a pom-pom is?"

Lan En walked towards the outer edge of the crowd, where the crowd thinned out, and the velvet ball jumped off his shoulder.

"What do you know, meow?"

"The golden demigods are eternal and immortal."

Lan En said this with a joking tone, while the three-colored Elune opened her mouth wide in surprise.

"Eternal and indestructible?" The one who ventured out from the simple natural world of the New World was in a state of bewilderment. "This... is unlikely, right? If it were like the ancient dragons here or in the world of fire, they would be made of stone, but even ancient dragons can be shattered and killed, meow!"

As he spoke, the velvet ball jumped up and pointed to the enormous wings that covered the city above, the wings of Gransanx.

The ancient dragons in this world have feathered wings, not bat wings, but more like bird wings. The outer side of the wings is marble-white, while the inner side has a golden texture.

“Yes,” Lann agreed with the velvet ball’s statement in a low voice, “I also think it’s unlikely… the so-called ‘eternal and indestructible golden demigod’.”

After seven days of browsing through the books, Lan En successfully established his understanding of this world and the Golden Dynasty.

For example, the 'golden demigods' he's talking about now.

The title "Golden Demigod" sounds like it refers to a 'hybrid with both divine and human blood,' fitting the common definition of a 'demigod.'

However, this was not the case during the Golden Dynasty.

In the Golden Dynasty, the only deity is the Eternal Queen, Marika.

The companions of the gods are called 'Kings', so Marika's first husband, Govre, is known as the "First King." Her second husband, Radagan, is less well-regarded, but he is also formally called a "King," though he is more commonly referred to as the "King's Husband."

【General Shattered Star】Ratan, 【Grand Justice】Rakad, 【Princess of the Moon】Lani. These three are ranked among the Gold Demigods.

However, they are not related to Queen Marika by blood. They were born to Radagan during his first marriage to the royal family of Caria in Lienia.

At that time, the Golden Dynasty was conquering all sides, but the legion led by Radagan encountered strong resistance in Lienia. After two battles, in order to quickly pacify the Lienia region, Radagan chose to arrange a marriage between himself and the royal family of Caria in Lienia.

Through a combination of marriage alliances and military force, the Golden Dynasty ultimately gained control of the region.

Radagan married Marika, the "Eternal Queen," immediately after Gavre was stripped of his blessing and banished from the borderlands. He then returned to Rhodel and married her, becoming king only afterward.

This controversial action is one of the reasons why the people of the border region have many complaints about Radagan. However, on the other hand, this king consort was quite responsible. His three children were able to enter the Golden Dynasty as 'relatives of the emperor' and were ranked as demigods.

Maternal relatives are generally members of the royal family who belong to the lineage of the empress or empress dowager.

However, the only goddess of the Golden Dynasty was Queen Marika, who was a woman.

The king, as the consort, is actually of lower status, so even though Radagan is male, his relatives are still considered in-laws.

The fact that Radagan's three siblings, who were not related to Queen Marika by blood but were still granted the title of demigod, illustrates a fact: in the Golden Dynasty, 'demigod' was a title that could be conferred, not a bloodline with power.

But that's even more outrageous!
Because the Golden Dynasty claimed that demigods are eternal and indestructible.

This means that Queen Marika can bestow the quality of immortality upon whomever she wishes.

This conclusion sounds absurd, but it's actually even more absurd.

Because under the Golden Laws of the Golden Dynasty, everyone can truly be immortal at the level of the soul. However, ordinary people have to take the path of reincarnation through the tree, while demigods are immortal even in their physical bodies.

But how exactly is this done?
Or rather, in the eyes of Lan En, a person from another world, the most important question is: what exactly did the Golden Dynasty sacrifice to achieve all this?
Unfortunately, even after thoroughly searching through Sir Gideon Ophniel's collection of books in the Hall of the Round Table, Lann found no mention of this matter.

This means that this information either doesn't exist, or it's kept at an incredibly high level of secrecy within the Golden Dynasty, and it might even be impossible to leave any written records.

Because the Faded Ones hold a very high position in the Golden Dynasty, they have access to information and data that are unheard of by ordinary Golden Tree people.

At first, Lan En didn't understand what the information he was reading represented. Later, as he read more and his cognitive framework about this world began to take shape, he finally understood.

It turns out that after being mistaken for a faded one, I was now essentially qualified to browse high-level documents of the Golden Dynasty!
Those who have faded are warriors who followed the First King and fought for Queen Marika in the four corners of the borderlands.

If even the faded figures in today's round table hall are unaware of certain information, then that information is... somewhat problematic.

Gideon Ophniel's collection of books even contains knowledge of the world's early days.

After all, those who were stripped of their blessings and banished, and who remained in the borderlands, were all chosen by the [Two Fingers], and their loyalty was beyond question.

As for the "Two-Finger" character, Lan En initially had no idea what kind of role it was. It wasn't until he began to understand the Golden Dynasty and the transfer of divine power in the border regions before the rise of the Golden Dynasty from the books he had read that he came to know it.

The deities of the borderlands are quite different from those of the ordinary world.

They are not supreme power holders; rather, their role is more like that of... propagators of their own ideals.

In Gideon Ophnil's collection of books, Lann learned that in the ancient times of this world, a being called the "Supreme Will" sent down a golden meteor and a beast from the heavens.

Later, this beast transformed into the Elden Ring.

That is, even today, in addition to the golden tree motif, another common motif in the Golden Dynasty is the image of several nested circles.

The Golden Tree evolved from the Elden Ring. It can be said that the power and foundation of this towering tree today are all based on the Elden Ring.

The Golden Tree has gone through several stages of development. In its initial stages, the Golden Tree was called the "Furnace of Life".

In this world today, the origins of all life are conceived and intermingled.

The highest achievement in terms of concrete manifestation is Gu Long today!

Horns, feathers, scales... all the characteristics that belong to different species of organisms today are combined in one creature.

The hybrids that Lan En saw also belonged to the characteristics of the Life Forge era.

However, as times have progressed and various organisms have begun to differentiate their characteristics, the haphazard accumulation of ecological features has gradually become an object of disdain.

The Golden Tree has evolved from its initial form as the "Life Furnace" to its current state.

In the borderlands, the meaning of 'God' is: an existence that possesses its own 'laws' and successfully displays its 'laws' on the Elden Ring.

The Elden Ring is like the principle of how the world works; it is a concrete manifestation of the rules governing the world's operation.

The god who successfully manifests his law on it can use the Elden Ring to make this 'world law' operate its own law.

To realize the feat of 'making the material world work on its own'!

The laws held by 【Eternal Queen】Marika are the foundation upon which the Golden Dynasty stands today—the Golden Laws!
(End of this chapter)