Sacred Tear

Xia Tong did not panic. He merely lowered his stance slightly.

He carefully sensed the Brass Shield in his hand, assuming a strange defensive posture as he shifted his center of gravity slightly to one side.

In an instant, the surface of the Brass Shield was covered in a heavy silver-gray shimmer, as though the shield's material itself had been strengthened several times over.

Barricade Shield.

Bang!

Xia Tong instantly felt as though he had been hit head-on by a speeding dump truck!

The immense impact traveled through the shield and into his entire body, forcing him to stagger back three steps before he could barely steady himself.

Even though he had angled the shield to disperse the force, he still felt his internal organs churning violently, and sweetness rose in his throat.

Just as Xia Tong was about to retreat, a piercing pain suddenly shot through his left ankle!

"Fuck!"

Looking down, Xia Tong saw a sneaky Frenzied Flame Rat clamped tightly onto his left ankle, its sharp incisors buried deep in his flesh!

As the saying went, the toes were connected to the heart—his foot was connected to his heart too!

Xia Tong immediately swung his sword backward!

A cold flash passed by, and the grotesque rat's head was cleanly chopped off. Foul black blood instantly stained the grass by his feet.

But that bite was more than just a flesh wound.

Xia Tong felt yellow sparks crackling inside his mind. For no reason, he became irritable, anxious, and seized by the urge to destroy everything before him.

Drawing on his gaming experience from his previous life, Xia Tong knew that his Frenzy Meter was building up.

Once it reached its critical point, the madness rising from the depths of his soul would be even more terrifying than physical injury.

Meanwhile, the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat shook its dizzy head. The ferocity in its eyes intensified as it roared and charged Xia Tong again.

This time, it did not choose to ram him. Instead, it opened its foul, fang-filled maw and began tearing at him madly.

Facing such a dense barrage of bites, the Brass Shield enhanced by Barricade Shield displayed absolute defensive power.

It was like a wall of despair. No matter how frantically the giant rat gnawed at it, it could not break through that layer of flowing silver light.

No matter where it tried to bite, Xia Tong's seemingly prescient shield blocked it firmly.

But that could only last for so long.

Out of the corner of his eye, Xia Tong saw another three or four Frenzied Flame Rats circling in from the flanks, waiting for a chance to ambush him.

With enemies before and behind him, Xia Tong's movements began to grow slightly disordered.

There was no helping it. There were simply too many rats!

When he had played Elden Ring in his previous life, he had been beaten to death by swarms of rats more times than he could count.

Now that he was experiencing it firsthand, those dead memories began attacking him again.

However, at that critical moment—

Whoosh!

A crossbow bolt tore through the air and pierced the head of a Frenzied Flame Rat just as it was about to ambush him.

The enormous force nailed it viciously to the ground, its limbs twitching helplessly.

It was the Godrick Soldier wielding the light crossbow!

Xia Tong had drawn nearly eighty percent of the aggro and firepower, while the battle on the Spirit Ashes' side had long been nearing its end.

The reinforcements finally had time to come over.

The Godrick Soldier who had originally carried a greatshield charged forward with heavy steps, raising his kite shield and slamming it hard into the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat's flank!

Thud!

The massive rat staggered from the powerful blow, its body lurching sideways as it retreated two steps.

An opening!

Against a monster of such enormous size, the Fanged Imps revealed their cruel side.

They screeched as they pounced onto the giant rat's back, the Forked Hatchets in their hands plunging in and out like they were chopping meat.

Accompanied by their shrill, hair-raising laughter, blood splattered everywhere. They truly looked like demons.

Seeing the giant rat restrained, Xia Tong took a deep breath and slowly raised the Lordsworn's Straight Sword in his hand.

He had already become thoroughly familiar with this sword.

Holding the sword one-handed, he leveled its tip forward.

Square Off.

All the strength in his body seemed to twist into a single rope, gathering at the sword tip.

Xia Tong suddenly stepped forward with his right foot, making the ground tremble slightly!

An unstoppable heavy thrust stabbed viciously into the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat's chest!

Squelch!

The sound of the blade piercing flesh was clearly audible.

At the entrance to Carl's Baptism Church, another five or six Frenzied Flame Rats seemed to have heard their leader's cries and were madly rushing back from outside to help.

But they could not get through.

Kulala floated quietly in the breach. Her semi-transparent pink body had become an insurmountable barrier.

Her tentacles were like flexible yet powerful whips, lashing hard at the rats trying to rush inside with howling gusts of wind.

From time to time, with a splurt, she spewed out huge gouts of purplish-red acidic venom.

Every spray of venom sent three or four Frenzied Flame Rats rolling across the ground amid shrill screams, their flesh rotting away.

Taking advantage of the opening, Xia Tong quickly pulled out the Crimson Tear Flask from his waist and tipped back a mouthful.

The warm liquid slid down his throat.

To be honest, he had not used healing medicine in battle for a long time.

But this time, the burning pain in his left ankle was truly outrageous.

As the potion entered his stomach, a warm current instantly flowed through his body. His aches and the wound on his left foot healed at a visible rate, while the agitation in his mind gradually faded.

His movements no longer warped, and strength surged back into his limbs.

By then, the Stray Wolves had also finished off the lesser enemies. They swarmed forward, biting down hard on the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat's limbs and pinning it firmly to the ground.

With the Spirit Ashes restraining it, Xia Tong simply tossed aside the cumbersome Brass Shield and gripped his sword with both hands.

He viciously delivered several more blows to the giant rat that was still struggling in its death throes.

Screee—!!!

With one final shrill and unwilling scream, the enormous monster finally crashed to the ground and stopped moving.

Specks of golden light rose into the air.

A golden Rune emerged from its corpse, gathering in midair into an exquisite golden symbol before falling to the ground.

Golden Rune [3].

At the same time, several streams of orange-red energy flowed out from the corpses of the Frenzied Flame Rats scattered nearby.

As though drawn by some force, they automatically flowed into the Crimson Tear Flask at Xia Tong's waist.

Xia Tong picked up the bottle and shook it, only to discover in surprise that the portion he had just drunk had somehow been miraculously refilled.

"The essence of the Flask of Crimson Tears is condensed life energy, or perhaps some kind of spiritual energy."

Melina's figure slowly appeared beside him. Watching the scene, she explained,

"When you end enough lives within a short period of time, the density of life energy in the surrounding space rises sharply."

"When that free energy resonates with the Flask of Crimson Tears, it condenses into tears once more."

Looking at the rat corpses all over the ground, Xia Tong could not help but laugh.

Of course he remembered the game's mechanic of recovering flasks by killing enemies.

But after nearly a month in this world, this was his first time experiencing it personally.

Previously, either he had killed too few monsters to reach the threshold, or he had not lost enough health to need healing.

Now that he had cleared out the entire rat swarm in one go, he had finally triggered this hidden mechanic.

Xia Tong sensed the Rune within his body. The twenty or thirty rats combined had provided nearly a thousand Runes.

"Xia Tong, do you know why people like you are called Tarnished?"

Melina suddenly asked as she looked at the faintly glowing Golden Rune [3] in Xia Tong's hand.

Without waiting for Xia Tong to answer, she continued on her own,

"The fading does not refer to the skin, nor does it refer to one's spirit or will."

"It refers to the disappearance of the golden light in one's eyes."

"At the height of the Erdtree Dynasty, humans blessed by the Greater Will all had dazzling golden light shimmering in their pupils."

"And Golden Runes are, in essence, a kind of solidified blessing."

Melina pointed at the rune.

"The higher the level of a Golden Rune, the clearer the patterns on its surface become, and the more they resemble a human pupil."

"If you ever have the chance to see the legendary Lord's Rune, you will find that looking at it is like staring directly into the eyes of a god."

Rubbing the warm Golden Rune [3] in his hand, an unreadable glint flashed through Xia Tong's eyes.

Back when he played the game in his previous life, he had hoarded several Lord's Runes in his inventory.

Not only did he have Lord's Runes, he had more Hero's Runes and Numen's Runes than he could count.

Who was he looking down on?

Xia Tong secretly felt pleased with himself.

Putting those thoughts aside, Xia Tong cleaned up the remaining scattered Frenzied Flame Rats.

Only then did he let out a long breath. This battle was finally over.

Aside from his own injury, the other Spirit Ashes were basically unharmed. Only one Stray Wolf had been bitten, but it was nothing serious.

Xia Tong slowly walked deeper into the church.

There stood the damaged statue of Queen Marika.

The statue spread its broken arms as though embracing this shattered world, compassionate and silent.

At the statue's feet was a reassuring warmth, completely at odds with the brutal, bloody atmosphere of the battle just now.

Xia Tong lowered his head and looked at the stone basin by the statue's feet.

Within the murky pooled water floated a golden-red liquid crystal the size of a fingernail.

It was clear and brilliant, like a tear of blood shed by the statue.

"This should be the Sacred Tear, right?"