Chapter 705: Great Rune
As Edward was flying toward Stormveil Castle, a golden sword flew toward him, forcing him to land. An ugly man with horns growing on his face calmly glanced at him from the top of the castle. He knew this man — Margit, the Fell Omen. He also knew this was just a projection of Morgott, the Omen King, a demigod and child of Queen Marika and the First Elden Lord, Godfrey.
"Four Tarnished, in search of the Elden Ring. Emboldened by the flame of ambition." Margit jumped from more than fifty meters high and landed in front of Edward. "Someone must extinguish thy flame, and let. Let it be Margit the Fell."
Edward knew this man had no value until he defeated his actual body. So, he did not waste time. Margit jumped up, condensed an enormous light hammer, and smashed it down on Edward, who deployed his shield to block. As Edward was about to counterattack, he noticed a crack in his force field.
"What’s going on?"
"The enemy has defense penetration and energy nullification granted by a silver of power with a similar resemblance to divine energy," Morgana analyzed.
"It seems it won’t be as easy as I thought to eliminate all those demigods," Edward thought. As Margit landed, he swiped his strange-looking tail. Edward did not jump or evade. Instead, he condensed a thin earth wall to block it, which caught the demigod off guard since he had never seen this strange magic.
Edward used this distraction to his advantage. Two blades formed from his armor with Alchemy, and he released a barrage of sword slashes, which should have severely injured the opponent or killed them. However, they were merely scraps on Morgit.
"Such high resistance?"
"I think you might want to use this world’s weapon or only focus on spell damage," Morgana suggested.
"Got it."
Margit condensed a light dagger that he threw. Edward used earth magic to push his body upward. While in the air, he summoned two swords he acquired from hunting the merchant at the church. He then condensed a floating earth wall in the air as his foot support to rush downward. Margit had quick reflexes and was prepared to fly backward to evade.
However, a purple glow manifested above his head, releasing a terrifying gravity that kept him in place. Edward — with his suit’s strength and the support of the planet’s gravity — rushed toward him with great speed. With a few slashes, he cut off Margit’s head and his body.
The projection disintegrated into motes of light, but not before the main body left a nasty warning that if they one day met, he would put an end to Edward, or the Tarnished, ambitions. "Did you get the data?"
"Yes, I’m building a model for the demigods of this world."
"Good. Then, let’s get our first shard of the Elden Ring." Edward went through Stormveil Castle like a speed-runner, trying to improve their gaming records. He did not shine from using the Elden Armor and a few Doom Bots to get to the owner, Godrick the Grafted.
The man is a direct descendant of the Golden Lineage, a bloodline derived from Queen Marika and her first consort, Godfrey. However, Godrick’s bloodline is so thin that he’s barely a demigod. He’s despised by other demigods and even his own servant. The only thing he has going for him is that he inherited one of the Great Runes, which are shards from the Elden Ring. Moreover, he inherited the one from the center of the ring, known as the anchor runes.
As soon as the battle started, Edward impaled this bastard with dozens of Earth Spikes, severely injuring him. However, Godrick was known as the Grafted because he practiced a taboo form of magic that involved stitching together other people’s body parts. Such a vile act granted him a high enough vitality that it almost fit his status as a demigod.
Out of desperation, Godrick cut off his own arm and grafted a dragon’s head into his body. Then, he started spewing flame in the hopes of burning Edward to ashes. Edward kited around him as he evaded the latter’s attacks. But what the demigod didn’t notice was the delay spells Edward left in each corner around him.
Once he was done, Edward slowly led him into the center before jumping in the air and activating the spells. Four towering walls appeared around Godrick before rapidly closing, trying to squash him like he was a bug. His dragon flame was useless, so Godrick did the only logical thing left for him in this situation: jump in the air.
Sadly, what awaited him was death. Using the same final blow he used on Margit, Edward cut off Godrick’s head and body with great speed and momentum. "One down," Edward said as he slowly took the Great Rune from the corpse.
"What did you find?"
"Nothing truly valuable, except for Godrick’s intense desire for strength."
"This would explain why its effects are to increase stats," Edward commented. "Let’s purify and activate it at the Divine Tower. It should reveal much more information. The tower was near the castle, and at the top was the corpse of a Two-Finger, alone with a glowing rune. After placing it on it, the Great Rune turned from its gray color to a more yellow or golden shade.
"Albeit feint, it does contain a trace of the power of law," Morgana analyzed. "However, we won’t be able to understand its power until we recreate the Elden Ring fully. Hmm? Wait, I sense something familiar. I think this Elden Ring might be this world’s version of Primordial Rune."
"Are you sure?"
"It’s very small, but it has the energy signature of Primordial Runes," Morgana nodded. After studying these things in a few universes, he knows how to recognize them.
"Can you tell what its unique characteristic is?" Not all Primordial Runes are the same. For example, the ones in Harry Potter are all about extremely efficient energy conversion. The one in the Fate Universe is about universality, as it can be directly utilized by all types of energy, such as mana, divine energy, aura, and chakra.
"My current theory is law manipulation."
"If that’s true, this thing is more valuable than expected," Edward commented. He has long developed the concept of Law Spells or Legendary Spells, which are spells specifically designed to utilize the power of Law. These spells should be way more potent than normal, and more importantly, reduce the burden on the utilization of the power of Law. However, Edward’s current Arcane Runes are not enough to achieve the level he desires. He already had some idea after studying Primordial Runes and Divine Magic from Fate, but the Elden Ring could be another piece to complete the puzzle.
Edward put the Great Rune away before flying toward the Raya Lucaria Academy. The next Great Rune was in the hands of Queen Renalla, and this was also an opportunity to have a second contact with Ranni. She will be a crucial part of his plan, and he needs to start preparing.
Once that was done, he’ll finally head to the Roundtable Hold. With two Great Runes, he can have a meeting with the Finger Maiden and meet the Two Fingers, which will be one of the biggest problems for his plan.