Elden Lord of Cinders

Morgott and Radahn had just wrapped up their conversation.

At first, he was stunned by the little horse turning into a person. He'd also looked into the story between Radahn and the little horse, which left his brain momentarily frozen. But once he got over the shock and they actually started talking, Morgott realized something surprising—communicating with that little horse was incredibly smooth.

So smooth, in fact, that it felt almost unnatural.

Aside from being a bit odd in itself, the little horse actually matched Morgott's idea of what a normal—no, an exceptional—being should be.

After talking with them and looking at the duo in front of him—well, one person and one horse—Morgott felt a strange sense of familiarity. And after thinking on it for a bit, he finally remembered where that feeling came from.

A halfwit brute and a clever beast perched on his shoulder, acting as his external brain...

That certain someone came to mind, and Morgott's expression turned strange.

The First Elden Lord, Godfrey—his own father—had that exact same setup…

Then came the conversation with Radahn—or more accurately, with Radahn's brain.

Finally getting to talk to someone with a functioning mind had a healing effect on Morgott. His mental state improved, and his mood lifted significantly. He even started getting a little full of himself.

Just think about it—he'd adapted to this godforsaken place, accepted Radahn turning into a human from a pony, and gone through all kinds of chaos. At this point, even if Lloyd pulled another stunt, he might not be immune, but his resistance was definitely up. No way he'd get shaken again...

He didn't even get to finish that thought before the scene in front of him completely wiped his mind.

Dude.

What the hell is Marika doing now?!

Honestly, Morgott was a pretty reasonable guy—as long as it didn't involve the Erdtree. He was even willing to respect other people's weird interests, even if he didn't get them.

But this—

This was Frenzied Flame!

The actual Frenzied Flame!

Not some low-level emissary like Shabriri, but a true embodiment of it.

And now…

Looking at the embodiment of the Frenzied Flame pinned beneath Lloyd, her face flushed red—not from embarrassment, but from the pain of being corroded—

After a long silence, Morgott took a deep breath. Then another. He tried to calm down and make sense of what he was seeing—but he failed.

He couldn't hold it in.

"You guys…"

Morgott stared at the two of them, his expression tangled with disbelief.

"What are you doing?"

Lloyd was about to respond when he suddenly felt a hand grasp his.

Looking down, he saw that it was Chaos holding his hand—a small hand, softer and warmer than he'd expected.

And on her ring finger was a ring set with a yellow gem tinged with a faint, murky darkness.

Lloyd was stunned.

A Covenant of Souls? When did that happen...?

As he was trying to figure it out, a system prompt popped up:

[You have obtained the Covenant: 'Flame of Defilement']

[Flame of Defilement]

[A frenzied flame corrupted by darkness]

[Enhances Frenzied Flame-related incantations when equipped]

[Slightly boosts the power of dark sorceries]

[What was once a pure flame of despair]

[Has now been tainted by the darkness of humanity]

[I will defile you, whether you accept it or not]

[This is the cruelest curse—]

[And the most beautiful vow]

[You have obtained the incantation: 'Chaos's Gaze']

[Chaos's Gaze]

[An incantation born from the Frenzied Flame]

[Casts the Frenzied Flame over both eyes]

[Increases the damage of Frenzied Flame incantations]

[Alters the casting motions of some Frenzied Flame incantations]

[Builds up Madness over time while active]

[The flame of madness seeks to consume the world through despair]

[And what often triggers that despair—]

[Is love]

"We were just forming a covenant," Chaos said, sitting up from the tree trunk while Lloyd browsed the system info. She adjusted her disheveled clothes as she moved.

"…Forming a covenant?" Morgott's gaze shifted to Chaos's ring finger, where a grayish-yellow ring shimmered faintly.

And it was Lloyd—his own hand—that had placed it there as the darkness flowed.

Their fingers had intertwined. As their souls merged, the ring that had previously been stored in Lloyd's inventory had manifested once more, engraved onto her body with the weight of his vow.

It was the symbol of their tainted oath.

Then Lloyd remembered what had just happened.

While fooling around with Chaos, he'd felt something round in his hand. It was oddly hard and refused to be discarded, so he casually slipped it onto her finger.

And now...

Staring at the ring on her hand, Lloyd paused.

So that's what it was for?

After a moment of reflection, realization dawned on him. He turned to Morgott, who still looked uneasy, like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.

"Old Margit, give me your hand for a sec."

"…What for?"

"Just hold it out. You'll see."

Though confused, Morgott did as he was told and extended his hand.

Then, to his shock, a gray ring suddenly appeared in Lloyd's hand—and was swiftly aimed at his finger.

Bang!

Morgott leapt back with a start, clutching his hand and glaring at Lloyd in disbelief.

"You…"

Dude, what the hell were you trying to do just now?

"Form a covenant," Lloyd said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Thanks to Chaos's earlier explanation and everything that had just happened, Lloyd figured he had a pretty solid grasp of how the whole covenant thing worked—it was all about triggering emotional resonance.

Of course, he had no way of knowing whether he was right.

But that didn't matter. He could just test it and find out.

And conveniently, he had the perfect guinea pig—Old Margit.

This guy was always jumpy and reactive whenever they interacted. It made him ideal for emotional testing.

That was what Lloyd thought.

But clearly, Morgott didn't see it that way.

Especially after spotting the ring on Chaos's finger, he instantly pulled his hand back. Even when he came over to pick up Godrick's lantern, he was visibly on edge, alert and wary.

After confirming several times that Lloyd really wasn't planning to put a ring on him, Morgott finally spoke, his tone complex.

"What does a covenant mean to you?"

Lloyd didn't understand why Morgott was asking that, but after a moment of thought, realization dawned. He looked at him seriously.

"Relax, I don't plan to kill you."

"At least not right now."

"…?"

To Morgott, Lloyd's answer made no sense.

But from Lloyd's perspective, he was being completely sincere.

He'd sworn himself a Warrior of Sunlight—then killed the Firstborn of the Sun.

He'd pledged to the Dark Moon—then struck down its captain.

As a faithful of the Devourer of Gods, he'd worked harder than anyone to take down Aldrich.

The Gravelord. The Rat King. The Spears of the Church...

Looking back, many of those he'd made covenants with had ended up dying by his own hand.

So Morgott's suspicion was perfectly reasonable.

But that wasn't what was happening here.

When Lloyd tried to give Morgott a ring, it wasn't just Morgott who was spooked—even Radahn and the little horse struggled to keep a straight face.

And after a brief conversation, once they found out who Chaos really was, their expressions became even harder to hold.

Dude, seriously.

Chaos, though, didn't seem to mind at all.

She just stood quietly behind Lloyd, lightly rubbing the ring on her finger, the corners of her lips curved in a faint, unreadable smile.

That expression made Morgott's eyebrow twitch uncontrollably.

Because her demeanor reminded him of a certain rumor about the Frenzied Flame.

That even though its essence is despair, what ignites that despair—

Is an overwhelming, all-consuming love.

Love that turns to despair because it's unattainable. Dying at the hands of the one you loved, failing to stop them in time...

Learning that your Finger Maiden was fated to die for her mission, so you took on the Frenzied Flame to spare her...

Or staying trapped in a remote mansion, enduring endless pain from the Frenzied Flame—all because of a promise made long ago...

And it wasn't just romantic love.

It could be love for a companion, a family member, a fellow clansman...

Of course, that's not the whole story behind the Frenzied Flame. But based on the actions of some of its apostles, it's clear that while Frenzied Flame is fundamentally chaotic despair, buried deep within it—

There really is a trace of love.

Or maybe, it's exactly because that love exists that the despair feels even deeper, even more twisted.

In other words—

Love might just be the perfect fuel for Frenzied Flame.

But Morgott quickly shook his head, trying to banish that thought from his mind.

No, no, no. That's impossible. What could the Frenzied Flame possibly have to do with love? He was clearly just under too much stress lately. That had to be why his brain had gone there...

The shock of Lloyd trying to hand him a ring just now—and the fact that Lloyd clearly didn't take covenants very seriously—left him rattled.

But there were more important matters at hand, so even though Morgott still found the whole thing incomprehensible, he chose to let it go.

...

Meanwhile, Radahn glanced at the ring on Chaos's hand, then at Lloyd. He seemed like he wanted to say something.

But before he could figure out what to say, Lloyd stepped up and gave him a wink.

"So, uh, Old Ra—check out this ring…"

Radahn bailed immediately.

Chaos clearly wasn't trying to hide the ring, and it didn't seem like she cared about it either.

He'd let Ranni deal with this one.

Because if he stuck around any longer, he might end up wearing a ring too.

"Hey, what's with you two...?"

Watching both of them bolt, Lloyd couldn't help but shake his head.

It was just a covenant, wasn't it? Sure, he'd killed off a few of his previous covenant partners, but was that really enough to scare people off like this?

Whatever. He'd just find someone else to try it on later.

After the brief interruption and a short break, Lloyd's group set off again. This time, with Radahn joining the party, their map-clearing efficiency shot up significantly.

Radahn's title as the strongest demigod wasn't just for show. With a full boss-template skill set, he was easily one of the most powerful beings in the Lands Between. Even though the damage from the Scarlet Rot hadn't completely healed, he was still absurdly strong.

He could snipe enemies from afar with his gravity greatbow, call down meteors overhead for mid-range attacks, and at close range, unleash a gravity wave that pulled every hostile nearby straight into his strike zone—followed by a devastating charged smash that cleared the area in one blow.

Brutal.

Then he got wiped.

Well, not quite wiped.

Midway through, a monster that looked like a mash-up of tree and soldier suddenly appeared. Honestly, it wasn't that strong. It moved slowly, had a huge wind-up before attacks, and when at a distance, all it could do was fire a tracking dark ray.

The ray wasn't especially fast—more like just right. Intuitively, a single dodge roll could avoid it easily. Both Morgott and Chaos had no trouble with it.

But Radahn? Not so lucky—his size made dodging impossible.

Worse still, the ray had a multi-hit effect on large-bodied targets.

After taking just three hits, Radahn's health was down to about one-third.

Then an even more ridiculous monster showed up—one that did nothing except spam those same rays.

It was obvious at that point: this setup was made to target Radahn.

Once Lloyd noticed that and saw Radahn's health drop to a critical level, he dismissed him back to his original world.

Even if someone died in this space, their soul wouldn't be lost in reality—at worst, it would suffer some damage. But with enemies blatantly tailored against him and his health running low, there was no need to force Radahn to endure it.

"Sigh... I was hoping for a glorious battle," Radahn said, disappointed, as he and the little horse returned to their world.

That marked Lloyd's first casualty in the group.

Just as expected, once Radahn left, the number of ray-firing monsters noticeably decreased.

In their place, new enemies began appearing—ones clearly designed to counter Morgott and Chaos.

But...

"Why are none of them targeting me?"

After pushing ahead for a while, Lloyd realized something strange. From start to finish, not a single monster had tried to focus on him.

Morgott shot him a sidelong glance.

"Tell me—how would you even be targeted?"

Instant weapon swaps. Full access to every spell, incantation, and weapon type. And that roll—on the surface, it looked plain and clumsy, but in reality, it was completely busted.

Lloyd always thought his setup was pretty normal. His moves looked awkward, maybe even a little dumb.

But to those who actually understood the mechanics, Lloyd—unassuming as he seemed—was the most broken player on the field.

That wasn't just some fancy dodge—it was an actual, honest-to-Marika invincibility frame.

Morgott had never even heard of such a thing before meeting Lloyd, let alone seen it.

On the other side, Chaos nodded in agreement after hearing Morgott's complaint. Her phasing was just another application of strength.

But Lloyd's... yeah, she couldn't make sense of it either.

Maybe it was because the difficulty system needed time to adapt the monsters. After cranking out so many ray-focused enemies to deal with Radahn, they hadn't had time to design proper counters for anyone else.

So over the next stretch, while a few more enemies appeared to challenge Morgott and Chaos, their numbers were limited.

Thanks to Lloyd's presence, the trio made steady progress to the next area.

Then, a vivid red summoning sign lit up.

[Would you like to summon ally 'Elizabeth'?]

Lloyd clicked confirm.

A blood-red figure slowly materialized before them, then opened her eyes.

"Why is your summon sign red?" Lloyd asked, curious as he looked at Elizabeth.

She crossed her arms, giving him a faint smile.

"Custom skin. Bet you've never seen one like it."

It was actually something similar to a domain.

But while most people used domains to tweak battle conditions to their advantage, Elizabeth had modified her summoning sign's appearance—and even added a friendly fire toggle.

When she appeared, Morgott frowned slightly.

He didn't recognize her, but for some reason, she felt... familiar. Like he'd seen her somewhere, a long time ago...

As he puzzled over the feeling, Elizabeth caught sight of him. Her eyebrows lifted.

"Hey, isn't that little Morgott?"

"You've gotten so big."

...

[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]

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