Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from the Elden Ring

On the brutal battlefield, even when utterly defeated, one could still retain a warrior's dignity; here, nothing else mattered. To die like this was truly humiliating. Caesar once again deeply felt the powerlessness he had so desperately resisted in the first half of his life, the very thing he thought he had conquered after gaining the heart of a warrior.

“Percy…”

"headmaster……"

"Nono..."

“Lu Mingfei…”

"Chu Zihang..."

"..."

Caesar breathed heavily, calling out the names of these people. If this was a nightmare, let it materialize, he thought. A tangible cage is easier to break free of. He hadn't given up yet; he at least wanted to warn Lu Mingfei that the Doomsday Faction might just be a trap!

Just then, a pair of hands covered his eyes from behind.

"Who are you? Where is this place? What do you want?" Caesar asked coldly, his tone hard.

"I have no ill intentions, at least not towards you..."

The voice was invisible and intangible; Caesar could not discern the speaker's age or gender.

"You don't need to resist, just listen. You like the sound of the wind, don't you?"

wind?

There was indeed wind.

The wind scattered the dandelions, and countless tiny umbrellas spun in the wind.

"You know where this is, right?"

Caesar did not answer, but he truly knew.

When he was a child, he would go on vacation to the Alps with his mother every spring, often standing on the grass at the foot of the mountain for several hours at a time, looking up at the sky.

In Caesar's world, the mountains and plains are filled with music. The sound of the wind is amplified a thousand times, like church music played on a pipe organ, and the sound of dandelion parachutes gliding through the air is the hymns sung by the choir. The entire mountain and plains act as the resonating chamber of that invisible pipe organ.

What did you see?

"Snow, grass, lots and lots of stones..."

Is anyone else here?

Caesar opened his eyes and looked up at that familiar face. The woman leaned down and ruffled his soft blond hair.

He is the student council president, he is a golden-haired lion, but here, he is just a cub in a gentle harbor.

Chapter 270 Golden Spirit Body

"We crossed the sea of ​​white sand...we crossed the sea of ​​rainbows...we wandered among towering mountains, the flowering trees sang before us, each flower singing a hymn of praise...we finally saw that great gate, its heights and widths endless, our faces reflected within, some laughing, some weeping...we will live forever and we will die...we will walk with God..."

The woman sang a hymn to God in a low voice, her face expressionless.

Considering her almost skeletal, alien body, one might doubt whether the nerves controlling her muscles still exist in her face. Her chest cavity seems to belong to a giant, with dense ribs replacing legs, providing support for her standing in the cabin. Her spine resembles a white-flowered snake residing in a skeletal cage, its curvature unlike anything that should exist in natural evolution.

It seems that by simply lowering one's head, one can retract the entire head into the chest cavity.

What kind of environment requires one to seek protection in this way?

Dozens of bony structures branched off from the woman's body. These root-like limbs, composed of grotesque joints and sharp fingernail tips, meandered through the crevices of the cabin, mostly converging around one cabin.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor, and the bone spikes clinging to the alloy bulkheads raised their "heads" like a swarm of startled snakes, all pointing towards the figure described by the converging sounds. In the trembling vision, they saw one footprint after another lit up in the darkness.

“My dear Miss Maria, you have endured such a long wait, are you in such a hurry for this moment? The more patiently you suppress your desire, the more perfect the moment will be when you drink the blood of revenge. You can see his blood flowing at your feet, like wine gradually spreading, which is what you have longed for day and night.” Pompeii tapped the wall with his knuckles.

“From the Italian naval port to now, I’ve heard too many metaphors about alcohol… Does the Divine Child also have a history of alcoholism?” An ethereal voice came from the bottom of the cabin.

“He has a naughty son who, in order to get revenge on me, smashed and punched holes in every single item in the wine cellar,” Pompeii chuckled.

"Someone like you truly possesses parental love? Please forgive my curiosity and offense." The woman raised her head in the darkness, her expression curious. She did have an expression, but the part about revenge had been exhausted over the long years, and now only a trace of curiosity remained about the gods, about Pompeii, and about the gods slumbering in the Arctic.

“Didn’t you also ask me to guarantee Regina’s safety?” Pompeii stepped over the cabin.

The patterns of the alchemical matrix are comparable to highly integrated digital chips. There has never been such an alchemical matrix in human history. It was designed by the divine child for his sisters, solely to preserve a sacrificial offering.

“She’s an innocent little girl, and she has my blood in her veins; it’s like a continuation of my story,” the woman said.

“Ah…I feel like I’ve heard that phrase somewhere before.” Pompeii descended the steps into the depths.

“I know very little about dragons,” the woman said.

“But you have seen the true God, and from now on you should trust your intuition, for it is the eye God has given you.” Pompeii stopped in front of the lower cabin door.

This cabin is also protected by the alchemical matrix.

“My gut tells me you’re going to eat them,” the woman said.

"Please excuse us, madam, it will be very bloody." Pompeii entered the password, and as the safety locks popped open one by one, the cabin door slowly opened.

The woman lowered her head, a thin layer of thick, black blood flowing at her feet. It was the trace she left when she assimilated the warship. After all, icebreakers are not designed as biological carriers. When flesh and blood extend along blood vessels and nerves, mistakes and collisions are inevitable. Some broken blood vessels are comparable to the main arteries of whales and are difficult to heal in a short time. The blood that flowed out accumulated there.

If we're talking about gore, the women's bodies are the goryest thing on this ship.

"Ha, what a jerk," the woman muttered to herself.

……

When the golem's great bow was fully drawn, it was like a catapult poised to fire. With a deafening roar, an arrow the size of a cruise missile, carrying a blade of wind, hurtled towards them. Lu Mingfei raised his large shield, but before he could even regain his footing, he was sent flying backward by the immense impact, tumbling several times before regaining his balance.

Lu Mingfei, who had held the power of the king of the earth and mountains for so long, had never suffered such humiliation. Not to mention a giant arrow, even if a mountain range were to crash down on him, it would not be able to shake his figure.

"Resilience, oh resilience, it makes one nostalgic," Lu Mingfei muttered to himself.

He scrambled to his feet and ran, taking cover in the shadow of a rock. New shots were coming, and a golem was lurking in the nearby woods, its crisscrossing fire blocking his path.

To his surprise, Bai Ling appeared.

The illusion of "Lu Mingfei" had also hidden here, his neck hunched, his body pressed tightly against the rock wall. A few breaths later, the white spirit vanished, this time without a word of despair or negativity.

Lu Mingfei: ...

Okay, that's desperate enough.

Another shot ripped away a layer of rock debris, and a fierce gust of wind erupted against Lu Mingfei's scalp. He leaped into the air, another golem's arrow grazing the edge of his body. The clumsy golem was still reloading; a gap appeared.

Lu Mingfei gripped the greatsword tightly with both hands, and with a Lion Slash, he struck the golem's feet. Without hesitation, he slashed again.

The golem's lower leg shattered, splintering into countless fragments of stone. The intense impact even sent flames flying, and the massive body, now without support, crashed to the ground.

Lu Mingfei skillfully stepped over the golem's legs and body, reaching its core in its chest. He first smashed it open, breaking through the outer shell, then plunged the entire greatsword inside, leaving only the hilt sticking out. It was a rather violent scene, but Lu Mingfei did it as if he were chopping tofu on a chopping board.

The golem, having lost its power, became an integral part of the ruins. Years later, dust would cover most of its body, leaving only a few hard, rock-like sections exposed. Lu Mingfei believed that vast fields of flowers or something similarly beautiful would sprout in the soil, and he eagerly awaited that day.

Another golem's arrow traveled a hundred meters and struck Lu Mingfei on the side of his face.

"I feel like Melina would prefer the golden flowers... but who knows, maybe she's already tired of them?" Lu Mingfei thought to himself as he charged toward another golem, shield in hand.

After defeating the golem, the scene changed again as expected.

The golden plains of the Yatan Plateau and the distant city walls of the royal city are like ink spilled into water, their colors blending together and gradually blurring.

Lu Mingfei closed his eyes. Seeing such chaotic scenes always made him a little dizzy. He had already figured out many techniques for surviving in this illusion.

When he opened his eyes again, everything was blurry. After his eyes adjusted to the dim light, Lu Mingfei could see that he was in a fairly spacious underground space, with an underground river flowing in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering light of fireflies.

He and the man sitting by the river spotted each other almost immediately.

"Isn't she Bai Ling now...?"

"A golden spirit?"

They both spoke at the same time.

Chapter 271 Dialogue

“You’ve finally arrived…” said Lu Mingfei, who was the host of the hook-finger game (the host in online mode).

"Not entirely, but the fact that I can appear before you in spirit form suggests that some ripples have appeared in this sea of ​​spirits, or perhaps we've both gone too far, and we're on the verge of losing ourselves." The golden spirit (the summoned entity in online mode) let out a long sigh. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh...it's nothing, it's quiet here, I'll sit here for a while." The owner of the hook scratched his head. "No, no, I mean, I found the door."

"Why don't you go in?" the golden spirit asked.

“I’m a little scared.” Hook’s owner slumped his head. “I feel it, just like you felt in that illusion. If I go in, you might die… You’ve helped me a lot before, and I feel it would be unfair to just go in like this.”

For a moment, the golden spirit was at a loss for words.

That was indeed the case in the illusion before. If he hadn't intervened and done everything in his power to stop Nidhogg, the "Lu Mingfei" in front of him would have indeed died.

He also came to that small patch of dry ground by the river and sat down beside the blessed golden light.

“Go inside,” he said.

The owner of the hooked finger suddenly raised his head and stared into his eyes.

“You will die, I know you’re not afraid of death… But what about the people you care about?” The owner of the hooked finger frowned. “For you to make that decision, there must be many people you care about in the real world… friends, lovers, family, etc. You must have met your real parents by now…”

"Where is the door?" the golden spirit asked.

“It wasn’t so chaotic here at first, but after I found that door, I just touched it, and everything became so chaotic.” The owner of the hook looked into the dark depths of the underground cave, where only fireflies danced and the sound of flowing water could be heard. “I can’t find it again.”

"Everything here is different from the real world. The connections you see all come from your mind." The golden spirit stood up. "Your hesitation is the labyrinth. You're overthinking things. A door doesn't necessarily only allow one person to leave at a time, but if you remain stuck here, we will all get lost. Then the black dragon you see will destroy all the beautiful things you can imagine."

He bent down and patted the shoulder of the person who hooked his finger. "I know what you're thinking. You don't know what you've done to deserve someone like me covering for you. Generally speaking, a rational judgment would be to sacrifice the weak to save the strong, right? That would be more sensible!"

The owner of the hook finger stared at him blankly.

The cave began to shake, just as he had said, the mind is a labyrinth, and the master of the hook was wavering.

“Lu Mingfei, you are a brave and good boy. You just don’t value yourself enough and sometimes lack motivation. Now I’m telling you, you are very important, so important that the whole world depends on you!” The outline of the golden spirit began to fade, but he still boldly pulled up the master of the hook, placed his hands on the other’s shoulders, and said with a smile, “Now run. Do you remember the 5000-meter race you participated in at the school sports meet? Run like that! Your real parents are waiting for you outside, but they will be very different from the ones you see in the illusion. Also, if you don’t know who to believe, just do what Angers said.”

“In the rules of this world, you cannot leave. I have decided to let you leave. That is the paradox.” The golden spirit took two steps back and said calmly, “A door may not be able to hold only one person, but there must be someone to stop them.”

They?

The master of the hook finger's pupils contracted slightly as bright light shone in from directly in front of him, piercing through the golden spirit's body, making it appear as if he were melting away in the sunlight.

The cave collapsed. Deep underground, there should have been tens of millions of tons of rock and soil overhead, but the light shining through the gap in the collapse was the glow of the golden tree, and the chaos in the world intensified once again.

All the defeated enemies have been resurrected, their bodies ablaze with dark red flames, their outer layers shrouded in a black sheen—a symbol of death that now signifies rebirth.

The golden spirit vanished.