Enlightenment · Six (Continued)

"By the time you enter the royal city, the combat strength of a high-ranking knight will be within your reach."

"And now, even if you were the captain of a knightly order, you wouldn't face any criticism regarding your martial prowess—you've grown so fast. Too fast. You learn sorcery and miracles in no time, and you even possess that otherworldly summoning magic whose principles I still don't understand. I don't want to test you; that would be boring for both of us. So, I hope you'll stop trying to fool me. After all, I think we should still be considered friends, right?"

"...He's a friend, Your Highness." Kal'tsit raised an eyebrow slightly, hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded gently.

"So this is a request between friends." The Princess smiled happily and with relief, her tone becoming lighter. "I want to ask you to send me into the First Flame when I'm successful but not successful enough. And if that's not enough, I hope you..." She shook her head.

"No, forget the second half of that sentence. When the time comes, just do what you want to do."

Kal'tsit gently closed her eyes.

The Princess before her seemed to overlap with someone from a distant Arknights in her perception. And the request at this moment also reflected and resonated with the promise made at that very moment.

—But she is not her.

—Gwyndolin is not Theresia ... It is not justice to commit slaughter in the name of nobility.

However, Lordran was never Terra. Terra's justice and Lordran's justice cannot be equated.

She took a light breath.

She was never really worried about the apocalypse. From the beginning, her focus was on what she could gain in the Lothric Castle. Of course, seeking profit while preventing war and oppression was a habit, a matter of course, much like stepping out the door with her left foot.

Because she knew that Lordran's doom would end, and the ordinary people cursed with Undead Curse would regain their freedom. She knew Surtr would not fail, or rather, she had never considered the possibility of Surtr's failure.

—Surtr ...

—It is precisely because I know that Surtr is dealing with the signs of the apocalypse that I have made stabilizing the situation between several nations and reducing the persecution of the undead the main objective of my actions.

"Ah, that's true. After all, while the nature of the Undead Curse is so similar to Originium Infection, there's a fundamental difference... In Terra, cases of Originium Infection cures are extremely rare, and many of those were due to Surtr's actions. But in Lordran, if the linking of the flame is successful, all Undead Curse will be eradicated."

Therefore, I will not consider curing the Undead Curse, because it is unnecessary. So I will only strive to eliminate the discrimination and mistreatment suffered by the undead. Because I know the season of linking the fire will eventually end.

Kal'tsit silently gritted her teeth.

She knew very well that if such a comprehensive solution existed in Terra, she would act in the same way she had on the land of Lordran —she was ultimately just a mortal, capable of stopping one war, stopping a hundred wars, but unable to stop war itself. And at the ends of Terra, there were countless aliens that she had no power to deal with.

She herself couldn't do it, but Surtr could; she could do it anytime she wanted.

—So...is that why I've paid attention to her? Ah...I want to save that suffering land. But I know I've only ever been able to patch things up, never eradicate the root of the problem. The only ones who can do that are her...and perhaps Persephone. But that gloomy woman...has never cared about the world.

Ask yourself honestly, what would you be willing to give up for that land called Terra?

—The answer is everything.

—Body, mind, life... I'm willing to do anything, as long as I'm certain that the path I've chosen will lead to success. And now, whether it's the only one or not, it's definitely the only viable solution in my eyes... Dream world travel, even just considering this ability alone, Terra's stability is within reach.

In the endless world, there are always treasures that can heal the Terra. While Surtr used to travel alone, now he can bring these treasures back to their original world.

—So, I did it voluntarily.

—I willingly fell in love with her, willingly entrusting my heart and body to her. Only in this way could I truly influence her, help her fulfill my ideal, and make her my ideal. The supernatural charm she had been wary of was merely a trigger, an amplifier. Even if I had known this from the beginning, I would have approached her after careful consideration.

Just as I'm thinking now...

Thoughts swirled within her, and she still didn't understand why her body rejected Surtr's influence. But as she analyzed her own mind, her motives, and unearthed the deepest desires within her, she realized that her feelings had nothing to do with that supernatural charm. Perhaps her initial lapse in composure upon arriving in this world was simply a consequence of her own actions.

—Possessiveness... My possessiveness towards her is absolutely my own thought.

—I... want to stay by her side all the time.

The thought process had yielded a conclusion. The emerald-haired, cat-eared lady opened her eyes. Gwyndolin was still waiting for her reply. Perhaps Gertrude had interpreted her brief moment of closing her eyes as a consideration of her request.

"... Things won't turn out that way. In this era, no one in Lothric needs to step into the First Flame." She sighed softly, saying—she found herself able to make promises for what Surtr would do without any guilt.

However, Gwyndolin may not have been able to fully understand her thoughts.

"Perhaps." The Princess gazed at her, her eyes filled with complex emotions. "But linking the First Flame remains the duty of the Lothric royal family. The mistake was made by my fathers, and my generation's mission is to end that error—don't try to take it from me, Kal'tsit. Only the royal family knows the path to the First Flame."

Kal'tsit did not answer. She knew Gwyndolin had misunderstood, but she also knew that the misunderstanding was inexplicable—because she knew that she was indeed capable of doing such a thing, but only if Surtr's actions did not exist in this world.

Gwyndolin then rose and handed her a holy book and a key. There was no need to continue the previous conversation, for silence was also an attitude and an outcome.

"This is a miracle of an angel; through her, you can find the Winged Knights' weakness. And this key is the key to unlocking the Grand Archives and the credential for entry. I know you've always wanted to enter the Grand Archives, and through it, you can obtain any intangible thing you desire within."

The invisible treasure is knowledge. With the key, one can take away all the knowledge that can be imprinted in the brain.

Kal'tsit nodded, stood up, and left. The Princess behind her did not try to stop her.

Friede is not Friede. The swordswoman who appeared at the bottom of Ashen Lake is merely Vessel of Power the Abyss. The real Elfriede should now be enjoying a leisurely retirement in the Painted World Ariandel.

She is a fake.

However, counterfeit items are many times better than genuine ones.

As the black blade rose, the entire deep surface of Ashen Lake instantly contracted—the abyss merged into one, blending into Friede's silhouette. And those eyes, which had been empty before the sword was swung, were instantly overwhelmed by the myriad emotions of the world.

The abyss, the abyss is the gathering place of the Humanity's Darkness.

To be an enemy of the abyss is to be an enemy of all greed, anger, ignorance, love, hatred, and desire in the world.

In other words, anyone with evil intentions cannot be a match for the abyss.

This is common sense. Common sense means what is considered correct by the average person.

Miss Surtr, however, does not fall under the category of common sense.

"You cannot defeat me." She whispered, and Flame Sword materialized at the end of her hand, altering the world's rules according to her will. In an instant, the Ashen Lake was filled with Sulfur.

Sulfur, and fire!

The Flame Sword and the Black Blade clashed, but it was the one that initiated the attack that was repelled. New character style bonuses were nonexistent on this battlefield. At the very moment of contact, the distorted spacetime, due to the unidirectional release of energy, formed a bowl-shaped barrier, sealing off Friede's direction!

'Clatter—'

Like shattered glass, countless spiderwebs crawled through space at the point of contact between the Flame Sword and black swords. The Black Blade, with its ancient history and illustrious achievements, shattered completely the instant it touched. And Friede's form, in the rupture of spacetime, crashed directly into a colossal stone Giant Tree hundreds of meters in diameter, hundreds of meters away!

The Giant Tree was instantly pierced; the powerful impact didn't even provide enough time for the kinetic energy to dissipate. And after one tree came another. And after that, a hundred more.

"You cannot escape me."

The shattered Black Blade transformed into a scythe, and the barely stopped wave caused the wave in front of her to split into a tsunami hundreds or thousands of meters long, suddenly cleaving in two directions. The tip of the scythe was covered in frost, and in the instant it was swung, the figure of the Flame-haired Girl and her sword suddenly appeared above Friede's head.

Smash.

The mimicry of the scythe vanished without a trace, and the dissipated frost formed a several-kilometer-long ice surface, only to vaporize completely in an instant. The vaporized lake water disappeared entirely due to its unique structure. The container of the abyss, however, was slammed into the lake, thousands of meters below the surface, by this single blow.