Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1924, 1896. The Great Rune

The standing son of the ominous sign paused after hearing his brother's calm words, but then grinned.

“Heh,” he chuckled deeply, his teeth sharp and clenched. “Yes, that’s not what I wanted to ask, Montgomery, my brother. What I wanted to ask was…”

"The Golden Law has collapsed! What need do we have to help stabilize it? Why should we contribute to it?"

He took a few steps forward, bringing himself closer to his brother.

This also meant that he was often exposed to the cold, white light of the special candles.

He was tall and strong, almost as tall as the Tree Guard on horseback when he was standing, and he held a heavy yet ornate trident in his hand. The luxurious style of the trident was incongruous with the tattered cloth wrapped around his body.

He had a ram's horn growing on his forehead, which curved down and covered half of his face.

Despite his brother's questioning, Montgomery remained calm.

"The Golden Law is the law that our mother operated on the Elden Ring."

His clothes were just as tattered as his brother's, but he only carried a burlwood cane, which suited his attire better than the luxurious trident.

“Our mother?” Munger’s smile, full of sharp teeth, remained unchanged, but the emotion beneath the smile turned cold. “The person who abandoned us at birth, does she deserve to be called a mother? Outside, she even claims that we don’t exist!”

"She and our father only had one child—our perfect eldest brother!"

“What a perfect prince!” Monger scoffed. “Now that he’s dead, Twofinger is thinking of pushing the two of us to the front?”

Montgomery's expression remained unchanged. He did not have the horns of his younger brother, the argali, but he did have many other kinds of horns.

"The Golden Law is a law that can bring happiness and peace to people to the greatest extent possible."

“Yes, the Golden Law blesses almost everyone.” The younger brother, Munger, wore a smile that was not only cold but also laced with mockery. “Except for us. Except for the Son of the Omen!”

"We were thrown underground, like rats! We're here begging to live! Waiting to die!"

Before Mongot could continue to refute him, his younger brother Mongo took a deep breath, letting the foul, damp air from the underground city fill his chest and calm down.

“I didn’t tell you to refuse two fingers, my brother.”

Hidden by the horns of the argali sheep, those eyes, radiating a golden light of blessing, gazed upon their brother, who shared their plight.

"Twofinger hopes that in this chaotic era, a king will step forward to restore order. Of course, you are the most qualified candidate, without a doubt! Whether it's law, bloodline, or power, you are qualified to be the King of Elden! But... what about the god who accompanies the king?"

Before Monger could speak, Monger immediately spoke up.

"Our mother? And the Golden Law that she once upheld but later smashed with her own hands?"

"Don't joke around, brother. Marika smashed the Elden Ring, her crime is unforgivable! How can she still be a god?"

"The end of the Golden Law era is inevitable, brother." He approached Montgomery, his ornate trident striking the ground with a fervor in his hand. "Even if the Ring is repaired, this world needs to enter a new era! An era different from the one dominated by the Golden Law!"

Mongot glanced at his brother's fervent eyes and the trident in his hand, and said coldly, "So you mean... the Mother of Truth?"

Munger made no attempt to hide it: "What's wrong with that? Mother Truth loves us, she gives us strength and protection! That's why we've been able to survive in this dark sewer! To survive until now!"

"And what about Marika? Marika is in dire straits herself! She smashed the magic ring and was punished by being imprisoned inside the Golden Tree. She probably doesn't even have the power to resist!"

"Mother of Truth! Mother of Scars! Mother of the Unseen!"

Monger loudly praised a certain being, and the trident in his hand seemed to echo his feelings, as a layer of pure blood-red flame suddenly ignited at the tip of the trident.

"Why can't we build an era that loves us, cherishes us, and protects us, brother?!"

Meanwhile, Mongols remained aloof, observing his brother's impassioned praise: "We are not divine men, Mongols. The Mother of Truth favors us, but we have not borne Her law. Therefore, we cannot initiate an era."

"That's easy!" Monger waved his hand, his voice rising even louder. "We can simply find a genius, capture him, and give him a blood transfusion!"

"The Mother of Truth loves wounds, and the flowing blood is Her sacrifice! Let the blood replace the law that God-man himself bears!"

"After that, brother! You will become his partner! You will usher in an era of blood! A dynasty of blood!"

Monger himself appeared excited and impatient, his powerful voice echoing repeatedly throughout the underground church.

But Mongot, leaning on his burl cane, simply watched him calmly.

Until Monger calmed down on his own.

His passion and impatience gradually faded in front of his brother, until they returned to the state they had at the beginning.

“So,” Munger sighed, “you’ve still decided to listen to the two-finger one and uphold the Golden Law?”

Mongols nodded, looking at the statue of Marika in front of him: "Just as I said before, the Golden Law is still the law that benefits the most people. Throughout history, the Borderlands have only had the Golden Law." Mongols' face was cold, his lips tightly closed, but his jaw muscles bulged under the cover of his ram horns: "You are a stubborn fool."

“You just need to tell me,” Monger stepped forward, touching the statue of Marika with one hand, “whether you want to come along or not. I won’t force you, you know that, Monger.”

As he spoke, the statue of Marika, touched by Mongot's palm, transformed from stone into a flurry of light.

Finally, Mongot extended the hand that had touched the statue to his younger brother and laid it flat.

His arms and hands were hairy and looked dirty. After all, they lived in the sewers.

But at the same time, his arms and hands were steady and firm, and even though they looked worn out, one could still feel their composure and strength.

Without a doubt, even someone unaware of the brothers' complex identities and backgrounds could at least tell at a glance that this was the arm of a powerful man.

Above that outstretched palm, two patterns shimmering with a hazy golden light now float.

The two patterns are very similar; they are both geometric designs, mainly circles with a line running through the center of each circle.

The entire pattern has a texture that resembles golden crystals, yet also possesses an ethereal quality.

Monge looked at the two markings on his brother's palm, and his expression became solemn as well.

His gaze kept shifting between the patterns on Montgomery's palm and Montgomery himself.

"This is... the fragment of the Elden Ring that Two Fingers sent through that statue?"

This is the Elden Ring! The source of life for all living beings in the world, the law governing the world!

“A fragment of the Ring of Law,” Mongols nodded, “call it with two fingers, [Great Rune].

Mongols stared blankly at the Great Rune that shimmered with a hazy golden light, seemingly unable to believe that something so sublime and precious to the entire world would one day fall into the hands of them, the sons of evil.

After a long while, he lowered his head and chuckled.

He then reached out and took one of the large runes from Mongot's hand.

He looked at his brother and gave a helpless twitch of his lips: "What else can I choose?"

As he spoke, he chuckled again.

A smile appeared on Montgomery's usually calm face.

The two sons of the ominous sign gripped the fragments of the magic ring in their hands and each pressed them violently into their own chests!
After a frantic effort by the Faded Ones, not only in Rodel, but also in the surrounding areas of this magnificent city, anyone with any standing in the Golden Dynasty was notified.

This included the manager of the Dirks Grand Elevator, the commanders of the garrison troops in several watchtowers, and representatives of various small towns and castles scattered across the Altan Plateau.

Within Rodel, all Rodel knights of the rank of Knight Commander and above were present. Bishops of the Golden Tree and practitioners of the fundamentalism of the Golden Law were also in attendance.

Even the ancient dragon faith in the royal city, and the ancient dragon who had been preaching for it, Lance Sands, the sister of Fulsanx, took human form and came to the Golden Tree Cathedral.

The human form that the ancient dragon transformed into at the border was not as ambiguous as in the folk tales.

Their appearance is similar to the "Dragon People" that Lan En once saw in the Flame World—the warriors of the Flame World who pursued the path of the ancient dragons and eventually transformed their bodies into what they are now.

Its body is made of an almost inorganic material, black and hard, and so thin that the outlines of its ribs, arm bones and femurs are clearly visible, while its head transforms into the shape of a dragon.

It only resembles a human in its general outline.

Even in human form, the ancient dragon's skull still resembles that of a cold-blooded animal, making it impossible to discern Lance Sanx's true feelings.

After all, her younger brother had entered Prince Godwin's body after the night of the Black Knife Plot, desperately trying to fight against death and save his friend. There's still no news of him.

The Golden Tree Cathedral was packed with people.

This cathedral, which normally only receives pilgrims from other places and serves the daily prayers of the residents of Rodel, has witnessed several anomalies in less than a week that could affect the underlying workings of the entire world.

Today, the magnificent golden tree, stretching to the sky and reaching the earth, still stands outside the church's large opening, its leaves falling.

This church will also witness another important event.

At this moment, everyone who had been summoned was looking at the main gate inside the Golden Tree Cathedral that connected to the Royal Palace.

Yesterday, although the palace was completely shrouded by the two-finger seal, the interior was still visible from the outside. Only when someone attempted to enter would a substantial barrier appear.

But now, a light screen bearing a two-finger emblem has risen directly from the door frame, obscuring the view inside.

The summoned people looked at each other, wondering what exactly this "new king who can stabilize the world" that Two Fingers had promised was all about.

(End of this chapter)