Elden Lord of Cinders

After talking with Thops, Lloyd blew his whistle again to summon Torrent and resumed his exploration.

Unlike before, this time he actually seemed to be in a pretty good mood, even with a trace of anticipation in his eyes.

The reason was simple.

Think about it: back in Limgrave, he was basically a rat scurrying through the streets, getting chased no matter where he went. Even roadside dogs wanted a piece of him. But after a few conversations—and especially after Old Morgott's explanations—he finally understood that the Tarnished were fated rebels chosen to seize the Great Rune. From the moment he set out, he was already on a collision course with people like Godrick. Fights breaking out on sight were inevitable.

But here in Liurnia?

On the Academy side, his teacher was Sellen. On the Carian side, he'd met Ranni and had Blaidd as a connection. The first mage he encountered at the start was Thops, who didn't even attack him—just a decent guy trying to teach magic for a few Runes. So maybe, just maybe, this time... he could actually talk to people properly.

Pfft—

Lloyd yanked the Bloodhound's Fang from a corpse, flicked the blood off the blade, then glanced around at the bodies littering the ground.

He fell silent for a moment and let out a sigh.

Forget it. Pretend he never said that.

Turns out, it didn't matter if the place had changed, the time had changed, or even if he held things tied to both factions—his situation as a public enemy hadn't changed at all.

Forget about joining either side. He had just happened to pass by a battlefield where the two sides were already fighting. He wasn't even planning to get involved. But then both sides suddenly went berserk and charged at him like they'd lost their minds. In the end, they all became his Runes.

And the rest of the journey was more of the same.

Carians? Slashed.

Academy sorcerers? Slashed.

Cuckoo Knights? Slashed.

Militia with little daggers, armored knights, sorcery-wielding trolls...

If it breathed and moved, Lloyd didn't hold back. He basically reenacted his entire Limgrave experience—cutting his way through everything in sight.

After progressing for some time, a wide, mist-shrouded lake came into view.

Thanks to prior info, Lloyd knew this was Liurnia of the Lakes.

Further ahead was a full-scale war zone where the Carian Faction, Academy Faction, Cuckoo Knights, Albinaurics, and Demi-humans were all clashing.

The Academy of Raya Lucaria itself sat at the highest point in the lake's center—also the best place in the Lands Between to gaze at the stars.

However...

Looking out across Liurnia of the Lakes, Lloyd fell into deep thought.

It didn't seem like Teacher Sellen had mentioned anything about there being this much Glintstone here.

Indeed, what stretched out before Lloyd wasn't just the lake, but vast fields of deep blue Glintstone crystals.

Not just a few—countless clusters, scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see. Some even had creatures frozen inside them... though by now, those were probably long dead.

Even if he didn't fully grasp everything in class, Lloyd still remembered some of Sellen's core teachings about Glintstone Sorcery.

"Glintstone Sorcery is magic that draws out the power hidden within Glintstone."

That was lesson one for any Glintstone mage—a foundation that explained how Glintstone and the sorcery it powered were inherently linked.

Everything about Glintstone Sorcery was built on Glintstone.

You needed it for research. You needed it to learn. You needed it to craft equipment. Even casting spells required it...

The Academy's azure Glintstone, the gravity-aligned purple Glintstone, the blood-red variant used by heretic hunters, and all sorts of other strange and exotic stones...

It didn't matter which school of sorcery you followed, or what you intended to do—if it involved Glintstone Sorcery, then you needed Glintstone. Period.

That was why Raya Lucaria Academy chose Liurnia of the Lakes as its location. Besides being the best stargazing spot in the Lands Between, the region also held abundant Glintstone veins—enough not only to supply the Academy's own needs, but also to export and trade for other resources.

Some even said that was the true source of Caria Manor's wealth.

In any case, while Glintstone wasn't exactly rare, it definitely wasn't something you'd expect to find scattered all over the place like this. And yet, here in front of Lloyd, it was everywhere.

He picked up a few fragments and used the identification method Sellen had taught him. The result? These crystals weren't just plentiful—they were high-grade.

"Something might've happened here," Melina whispered from behind.

"Yeah, I can tell."

Lloyd nodded, though his expression stayed flat.

After all, as a seasoned Undead, he was used to chaos breaking out wherever he went. Honestly, if he'd come here and found peace and quiet, he'd probably have gotten suspicious.

Pocketing some Glintstone shards to take back for Sellen to study, Lloyd pressed onward.

Strangely, the further he went, the fewer of those odd Glintstones he saw. It only took a few steps for the landscape to shift back into a normal lakeside scene, with just a few fragments scattered here and there. The large crystal clusters he had passed earlier remained standing behind him—almost like they marked the site of something that had happened.

And yet, it all felt oddly familiar.

A little farther ahead, Lloyd came across a nomadic merchant. After activating the nearby Site of Grace and buying a few things with some Rune, he got back up and continued on. He stuck to the cliff wall on his left and walked for a bit until he came across a narrow cave entrance.

He dismounted, stepped inside, lit the Grace point, and casually opened a nearby chest.

[Obtained "Arteria Leaf"]

Lloyd: "..."

Seriously, Miyazaki? You put a leaf in a chest down here just to mess with us? Classic.

The cave was dark and looked pretty deep. After taking a few steps and feeling his vision falter, Lloyd pulled out his staff and cast the "Starlight" spell he'd just learned from Thops. A glowing orb formed above his head, illuminating the darkness around him.

The light also caught the attention of several Demi-humans lurking deeper inside. One by one, they emerged from the shadows and began to surround him.

But unlike the Demi-humans he'd encountered in Limgrave, these ones had Glintstone crystals growing out of their bodies—some large, some small.

The crystals looked like they had fused with their flesh, sprouting right from their skin. As they lunged to attack, the crystals briefly glowed, and their wooden clubs, stone axes, and other crude weapons shimmered with a faint azure Glintstone glow.

Fortunately, even though they looked like they'd learned how to enchant their weapons with magic, their intelligence and combat patterns hadn't changed much.

As several crystal-infused Demi-humans charged toward him, Lloyd maneuvered to bait them into a chokepoint. After sidestepping a few attacks with a backward leap, he used the reach of the Bloodhound's Fang to slash through them twice, cutting them all down and converting them into Runes.

A little further in, he found a small cave off to the side, housing more Demi-humans similar to the previous group. But this time, since he hadn't been noticed, Lloyd silently crept in and took them out one by one. After the last kill, he opened a treasure chest and obtained a [Spear Talisman].

After confirming there were no hidden walls around, Lloyd retraced his steps and spotted a stone platform jutting out from the cliff—perfect for dropping down.

After playing through what felt like one of Miyazaki's classic jumping gauntlets, Lloyd landed at the bottom of the cave. He expected an ambush, but instead, all he saw were the corpses of snail-like creatures, their bodies covered in crystalline growths.

Someone had already been through here?

He cast Starlight again with his staff and pressed deeper into the cave.

After a few turns, he came across the crystallized corpse of a Bloodhound Knight.

Sitting next to it was a figure that looked oddly familiar to Lloyd.

Blue skin. Large hat. Flowing dress. Surrounded by a cool, mystical aura.

"Hm? Are you a Tarnished?"

The figure looked up at him.

"You can call me Witch Ranni. I'm here studying these strange crystals. And you—why have you come?"

Ranni?

Hearing that name, Lloyd froze for a moment. He glanced over the figure in front of him, taking it all in.

At first glance, he really did think it was Ranni. Her outfit, her magical aura—everything seemed to match.

But up close, something felt off.

The most obvious thing: the Ranni he knew had four arms. This one only had two.

And on the backs of those two hands were embedded shards that looked as though they had devoured all color—fragments that seemed oddly familiar to him.

"Oh? Looks like you know Ranni," the strange sorceress said, catching Lloyd's expression. She shook her head.

"Well, fine. I admit it—I'm not Ranni. My name is Rennala... Wait, do you know her too?"

Lloyd shook his head. "No, I just know she's still in the Academy, and her mental state's... not great."

The sorceress paused, thinking. "Actually, I'm Rellana. Rennala's younger sister."

"The Queen of the Full Moon has a sister?" Lloyd turned to Melina, who was standing behind him.

Melina remained silent for a moment, then nodded. "She does. But I can say for certain—this isn't Rellana."

After all, Rellana was currently working under her red-haired brother, and her role was that of a Sorceries Knight. There was no way this woman matched that description.

"Tch."

Seeing her attempt at deception fail, the strange witch clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Alright, alright, I give up. I'm Renna. Witch Renna."

"I just woke up in this cave, and these strange crystals were the first thing I saw. I was examining them when that thing over there tried to attack me, but I dodged it. Now things are like this."

"Also, could you two explain what's going on here? What's the current state of Liurnia? What are Rellana and Rennala up to? From the way you talk, it sounds like things are a mess."

Lloyd shook his head. "I only just arrived. Not really sure myself."

"Alright, fair enough."

Renna didn't push the issue. She could gather the information on her own if needed.

"Well, if there's nothing else, I'll get back to my research."

After confirming there was no new side quest, Lloyd walked past the self-proclaimed Witch Renna and continued deeper into the cave until he emerged back outside.

To his left was a rundown wooden shack with a Grace nearby.

Next to the Grace sat a barefoot girl, curled up beside the body of a massive wolf, her face full of grief.

Hearing his footsteps, she looked up with eyes full of restrained anger.

"Foul tarnished, what do you want?"

"I told the All-hearing Brute. That I possess no such medallion. Or have you come to take more from me? Was my other half not enough??"

Looking at the furious girl in front of him, Lloyd thought for a moment, then asked sincerely,

"Um... who's the All-Hearing Brute?"

"What's a medallion?"

"Could you explain it to me?"

Latenna: "...?"