"Will this be the last time...?"
The man clad in silver armor murmured, his greatsword still stained with golden blood.
Before him, a massive black-and-gold beast dissolved into gray particles and gradually vanished into the air, while a golden light slipped into the man's body.
Pillars of golden light in the sky slowly faded away. The world gradually returned to its original appearance, leaving behind only a desolate expanse of stone.
The ground was covered in countless cracks, its only decoration being innumerable golden leaves.
At the center of the platform stood a statue—Marika Statue. It was already on the verge of shattering, and beneath it lay a head about to split apart.
Lin Luo frowned slightly as that seductive voice echoed in his mind once more.
"Restore it. Restore the Golden Law, and you will become the Elden Lord. You will gain immortality!"
"Shut up!"
Lin Luo snorted. His Intelligence and Arcane, both at 99, directly snuffed out the voice in his mind.
"Become the Elden Lord?"
Lin Luo sneered.
"I've gone through hundreds, thousands of cycles in the Lands Between. You strengthened them again and again—wasn't your goal simply to control me?"
Lin Luo smiled. "If I'm not mistaken... this is already the limit of what you can do, isn't it?"
"Before the first dozen or so cycles, their power had already stopped increasing."
"With every cycle, all items were retained, except... their Runes!"
"Their Runes have already reached the limit of what can be enhanced. This is my only chance to break free from you!"
"Even if I die, I, Lin Luo, will never submit to you!"
Lin Luo burst into laughter. To him, death itself had become a luxury. And now, breaking free from the cycle was something he had never even dared dream of. Oh, no—that wasn't right. Since entering the cycle, he no longer knew what dreaming felt like.
"Whoosh..."
A gust of wind blew in from nowhere, carrying countless wails and roars.
Lin Luo inhaled its scent. Never had he found that rusty stench of blood so wonderful. Within it, he smelled freedom—and the fury of the Greater Will.
"So you can get angry too. You bound countless souls with the Erdtree and grandly preached immortality, yet you never expected an ant to shatter your plans, did you? What's laughable is that this ant was raised by your own hand!"
Lin Luo raised his greatsword. It was a weapon forged by the Elden Beast—the divine body turned into a sword.
Weapons emerged one after another from behind him: Malenia's Prosthetic Blade, Starscourage Greatsword, Morgott's Cursed Sword, Godrick's Great Axe...
Countless weapons circled around Lin Luo, and streams of Runes spilled from them, slowly merging into his body.
"Crack..."
A nearly imperceptible sound of breaking rang out. It was the sound of shackles being shattered.
"Boom!"
A thunderous explosion rang out. The golden sky turned blood-red, revealing a grotesque face in the heavens.
A massive crimson bolt of lightning suddenly struck toward Lin Luo.
"Heh..."
Lin Luo looked contemptuously at the lightning rushing toward him. With a casual wave of the small shield in his left hand, he activated Ash of War: Endure.
Golden light spread across Lin Luo's body. Lightning ravaged him, yet failed to stir even the slightest ripple.
Lin Luo flashed forward and instantly appeared before Marika Statue, gripping its shoulder with one hand.
"Fade away, Two Fingers. Your Golden Law is about to break!"
"Two Fingers, Greater Will—you cannot control me!"
The aura of the Frenzied Flame rose behind Lin Luo. After thousands upon thousands of cycles, he could suppress the Frenzied Flame without relying on Miquella's Needle. Lin Luo had used the Mimic Tear to embrace the Frenzied Flame, merging his true body with the Mimic Tear. Now, he could fully control it.
Yet this was only the beginning.
Radagon's Great Rune, Godrick's Great Rune, Mohg's Great Rune, Morgott's Great Rune, Starscourage Great Rune, Malenia's Great Rune, Great Rune of the Unborn, Great Rune of Cursed Blight, Regretful Prince's Rune.
Nine different Great Runes appeared in the air.
Crimson lightning poured down, venting the Greater Will's rage, yet it could not tear through the immense power of the nine Great Runes. Perhaps even it had not expected the power it created to become its greatest obstacle.
"Damn you, lowly Tarnished! Just like that damned Marika, you dream of destroying my Golden Law!"
The Greater Will roared furiously.
"You cannot break the cycle, ant! This is nowhere near enough! Nowhere near enough!"
"Your power is quite impressive..."
Lin Luo sneered. "Unfortunately, I possess power you have never had."
Lin Luo slightly raised his right hand, and an ancient crimson fang appeared as the aura of death spread outward.
"Blasphemous Claw?"
Regretful Prince's Rune, along with the portion of the Death Rune once stolen away, transformed into a dark crimson current and flowed into a Black Greatsword.
That dark crimson ancient fang perfectly embedded itself into the missing portion of the greatsword.
The aura of death spread and enveloped Lin Luo as dark Runes merged into his body.
A moment later, he opened his eyes. His left eye burned with overflowing golden Frenzied Flame, while his right was dusk-colored and as lifeless as death itself.
The Frenzied Flame and the Death Rune—powers that did not belong to the Greater Will.
The Greater Will had sought to create a flawless cycle, taking fragment after fragment from the complete Death Rune and the Frenzied Flame to reinforce it. What it had not expected was that this ant would obtain those powers time and again.
Using power gained from it to defeat it was obviously impossible.
And trying to break free with only one external power was obviously impossible as well. Thus, Lin Luo chose an even crazier method. He had no way back. Compared to an endless cycle, even death after failure was a better destination.
"Destined Death!"
A horrified voice rang out from the sky. At this moment, it finally panicked. It had never expected Lin Luo to be so unpredictable. A Tarnished had actually mastered both Destined Death and the Frenzied Flame. This man was utterly insane—so insane that he was terrifying. At last, it truly faced Lin Luo, regarding him as an equal.
The phantoms of the God-Slaying Queen and the Three Fingers appeared behind Lin Luo.
Their powerful aura even eclipsed the Greater Will in the sky.
"You! You cannot survive!"
The Greater Will roared from above. Countless golden meteors filled the air, turning this small patch of land into a sky full of stars.
It was beautiful, but it was also filled with countless lethal dangers.
"The Golden Law cannot be defied! Lowly Tarnished, you will pay for your foolish actions!"
"Elden Stars!"
Lin Luo laughed, his gaze becoming incomparably resolute.
"Destined Death!"
He swung his sword fiercely against Marika Statue.
Black-and-crimson sword energy swept wildly through the air, striking Marika Statue again and again.
At the same time, the meteors released by the Greater Will reached Lin Luo. Golden meteors exploded around him.
Even several Great Runes shielding Lin Luo could not completely block the meteoric explosions.
By comparison, the seemingly fragile Marika Statue was unexpectedly tough.
"Crack..."
Godrick's Great Rune shattered first. Several meteors seized the opportunity to slip through and slammed into Lin Luo's back.
The heavy blow to his back made Lin Luo cough up a mouthful of blood. What spilled from his lips was black-and-gold blood.
"Damn, that was pathetic. A giant lobster would be tougher than you."
Seeing Godrick's Rune shatter first, Lin Luo could not help but complain.
Lin Luo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, drank a flask of crimson tears, and felt his blood settle before raising the Black Sword again.
"This ends here."
Holding the Black Sword, Lin Luo slowly thrust it into the abdomen of Marika Statue. The statue had nearly reached its breaking point.
Lin Luo tilted his head aside to dodge a meteor, then drew another weapon with his right hand.
"Eclipse Shotel."
The Greater Will was terrified. Under normal circumstances, it would not have cared, because Tarnished could not use Death Blight's instant-death effect. But Lin Luo now possessed the power of nearly the entire Death Rune.
"No!"
Lin Luo's lips moved slightly. The Two Fingers could tell that he was saying, "Bye-bye."
"Destined Death."
"Death Blight!"
"Ding!..."
Marika Statue shattered completely. The desolate stone ground instantly turned into nothingness, and a murky black sphere fell from within Marika Statue. In an instant, a massive black hole swallowed everything...
"Did I succeed...?"
Lin Luo's consciousness gradually faded. He did not realize that all of his attributes at 99 had begun to slowly break through...
Thus, the supreme cycle was shattered.
(The Frenzied Flame does not originate from the Greater Will. Someone told me that the Three Fingers and Two Fingers are both parts of the Greater Will. Yes, but the Frenzied Flame on the Three Fingers does not belong to the Greater Will. The Three Fingers are like the Tarnished and those wandering peoples—they were all infected by the Frenzied Flame. As Miquella's Needle describes it: forged to ward off the interference of outer gods, and it can suppress the Frenzied Flame. This is based on information I looked up; if you have a different opinion, feel free to comment.)
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