Temple

At dawn, Lucia was in the courtyard reviewing the sword techniques he had just learned the day before when he suddenly heard footsteps. He looked back and saw a handsome young man in light armor, with gray hair and red eyes, appear at the courtyard gate.

"Why are you dressed so formally this early in the morning? It's not like we're going to war." Lucia looked at Ekzykes as he walked over, lowered the blunted training sword, and asked with a smile.

Ekzykes bowed and answered stiffly, "As Your Highness's guard captain, maintaining combat readiness at all times is my most basic duty."

Lucia was speechless for a moment. He took a deep breath, rubbed his brow, and nodded helplessly. "You're right..."

Ever since his birth, Ekzykes and Guerel, as his guard captains, had undoubtedly been the two dragons who had accompanied him the longest. Though they were about the same age and evenly matched in martial skill, their personalities and ways of doing things were worlds apart.

At first, Guerel had been dissatisfied because he had accepted the invitation to go to Leyndell. And because of her single-track personality, she had never been the least bit shy about showing that dissatisfaction during their everyday interactions, which was why she had acted so coldly toward him back in Vania Valley. Later, as a series of events unfolded, the estrangement between them gradually faded, and they had already returned to a normal way of getting along. But the facts had amply proven that Guerel had probably poured every ounce of talent in her life into combat skill. Aside from reacting instantly when Lucia told her to cut someone down, she was almost completely clueless about everything else.

Ekzykes was the exact opposite. Whether in schemes and strategy or in dealing with people, he was so reliable that he hardly seemed like a young dragon only a little over two hundred years old. When it came to matters involving his lord's safety, he showed an almost extreme sense of responsibility. Going out in armor and sleeping while hugging a spear were nothing out of the ordinary. Lucia had long since gotten used to it. On the surface, he had been asking him just now, but in truth, it had only been a casual, hopeless attempt at persuasion.

Forget it, forget it. Let him do as he likes... Lucia sighed softly in his heart and said, "What brings you here so early?"

"Priestess Lansseax sent someone with a message just now. She said that if Your Highness is free this morning, you may go to the Ancient Dragon Temple," Ekzykes replied. "The priestess also specifically instructed that Your Highness dress casually and not bring any weapon that would reveal your identity—I suspect the priestess may want to take Your Highness around the city?"

"Mm... possible." Lucia rubbed his chin. "I've been in Leyndell for so long and haven't gone out once. It's about time I took a walk."

With that thought, he headed straight into the palace to change, then gave an order over his shoulder. "Arrange an ordinary carriage. We'll set off once I'm ready."

"Yes."

A quarter of an hour later, an utterly unremarkable single-horse carriage drove out through Hero's Gate on the eastern side of the Golden Sanctuary and entered the royal capital's spiderweb-dense streets and alleys. At this hour, there were not many pedestrians or vehicles on the streets yet, but even so, the journey still took a full three hours. Only when the sun had climbed high did Lucia finally see, through the carriage window, the towering temple located in Ancient Dragon Plaza in the east of the city.

It was an architectural complex of extraordinary grandeur. Bronze gates more than ten meters tall stood at the end of Ancient Dragon Plaza, while solid, heavy columns supported majestic and ornate quartz eaves. The outer walls were carved with lifelike reliefs of ancient dragons, and at the very center was a pattern of the ancient Elden Ring worshiped by the ancient dragons—the "Initial Ring."

It was said that in the era when the dragon god Hlaris was the one true god of the world and the Dragon King Placidusax was Elden Lord, the original Erdtree still existed in the form of the Crucible of Life. At that time, what the ancient dragons believed in was not today's Elden Ring and Golden Order, but the Initial Ring and Primal Law that had existed in antiquity.

Reflected in the specific form of the ring, the Initial Ring's structure differed from the triangular distribution of the Elden Ring in Erdtree faith. Instead, it was made up of eleven interlocking circles that together formed a structure shaped like the root system of a giant tree.

By rights, this temple was jointly governed by Lansseax and Fortissax. However, since the latter often fought abroad alongside Godwyn and was absent from the royal capital most of the time, the temple's many daily affairs all fell on Lansseax's shoulders.

The carriage stopped near the temple, and Lucia jumped down from the carriage door. Today, he had deliberately changed into a crudely made set of steel chain mail, and the Dragonscale Blade he normally wore had been replaced with an ordinary longsword without any enchantment effects. Looking around, there were no fewer than seven or eight mercenaries, adventurers, and caravan guards on the street dressed much like him.

"You can head back first—" He patted the carriage compartment and spoke to the Storm Knight temporarily serving as coachman and to Ekzykes inside the carriage, then turned and walked toward the temple gates.

Two fully armed knights of the ancient dragon faith stood before the temple doors, but their duty seemed only to be maintaining the temple's security, and they did not question the believers entering or leaving. In just this short span of time, Lucia had already seen more than ten believers come and go, among them armored knights as well as citizens in ordinary clothing.

He stepped forward, gave the Ancient Dragon Knights at the entrance a slight nod in greeting, then followed the stone corridor behind the bronze gates into the temple. Before long, he arrived at the Ancient Dragon Cathedral located in the central area of the front hall.

Walking in through the open oak doors, what entered his eyes was a space quite similar to Sky City's dragon church. An ancient dragon idol carved from massive stone coiled across the ceiling. Below it, a broad path led straight to the pulpit ahead, while rows of seats were arranged in tiers on both sides. Nearly a hundred believers in various attire sat scattered throughout. Tall, broad floor-to-ceiling windows cast in clean, clear light, illuminating the faces of the believers, old and young alike, in sharp contrasts of light and shadow.

Lansseax was standing on the pulpit in the image of a white-robed priestess, preaching the doctrine of the ancient dragon faith to the believers. After Lucia entered, he made no sound, merely finding a seat with a good view in the back row and sitting down.

"As I said before, the main difference between the Initial Ring and the current Elden Ring lies in the fact that 'Destined Death' had not been separated from it," Lansseax's steady and elegant voice echoed through the cathedral. "Thus, in the ancient dragon faith, our understanding of death is not reincarnation after returning to the tree, thereby attaining eternal life. Rather, it is returning to nature after complete death, participating in the cycle of life and death in the form of nourishment, and using one's own passing to provide an opportunity for the rebirth of all things."

"Priestess, I have a question." A knight in golden armor raised his arm, confusion on his face.

Lansseax smiled faintly and raised a hand, signaling that he was free to ask.

The knight stood up, looking bewildered. "Priestess, according to the doctrine you explained, death is the end of life. Then wouldn't the Golden doctrine's claim that returning to the tree grants eternal life be wrong?"

The moment these words were spoken, many of the believers present erupted into an uproar. Confusion and bewilderment appeared on everyone's faces. If the Golden doctrine was wrong, then how could the Golden Order have become the principle governing the operation of all things?

"There is no need for everyone to worry." Lansseax spoke again, calming the crowd's panic with a voice as gentle as water.

"Faith does not require us to abandon the instinct of independent thought and unconditionally prostrate ourselves before everything in its doctrine. Rather, it is a way of understanding and comprehending the world."

"The great dragon god Hlaris once had a maxim—'The more one seeks knowledge, the more one discovers one's own ignorance.' Even a god of utmost goodness and virtue merely walks the road of seeking knowledge. Why should we panic because of doubts about doctrine?"

"Now, returning to the doctrine itself," she continued. "The different understandings of death in the two faiths do not mean they are fundamentally opposed. In the ancient dragon faith, we believe that returning to the tree is likewise a way of participating in nature's cycle. Moreover, because of the Erdtree's existence, mortal beings can return to nature itself after death in a purer and more thorough form—as for souls reborn after returning to the tree, all traces of their previous lives have already been washed away. In the Golden faith, this is understood as rebirth; in the ancient dragon faith, it is understood as new birth. Though there are differences between the two, they can also coexist."

Hearing this, all the believers felt as if they had been enlightened, and looks of sudden understanding appeared on their faces. Lansseax explained another section of the doctrine, then announced the end of today's sermon. The believers rose one after another, bowed, and dispersed.