Second Sunlight King

The flames on Elsa's body suddenly went out?

Without the flames covering her body, it became clear just how much damage her relentless, all-encompassing fighting style had actually inflicted on her.

Her entire body was covered in wounds, a small portion from the Silver Knight, but most from Aldrich's magic. Her internal bones were also in bad shape; Smough's hammer had cracked the bones in both her arms.

If they keep fighting for a while, her body mass will probably rival Adam Smasher.

The scene was shocking, and Lu Lu Wo's eyes showed heartache, but an even greater threat forced her to raise her head.

The flames begin to die out at their source, and then the extinguishing momentum climbs upwards.

However, before the forty-meter-tall fiery blade disappeared, it collided fiercely with Aldrich's attack!

The burning flames collided violently with the dark moon power mixed with the deep darkness. The intense light that burst forth for a moment caused Lu Lu Wo to lose her sight. In the darkness, she felt the "storm" brought about by the collision with her body.

The ground shattered, a fierce wind howled, the hall shook, and pebbles blown by the gale cut bloody marks on the skin. The heat of the flames and the coldness of the dark moon alternated, as if Groudon and Kyogre were taking turns vying for the weather.

This extreme change was unbearable for Lu Lu Wo, the only normal person in the room. Her carefully maintained chains couldn't withstand the pressure of the extreme temperature change and shattered one after another.

When the shaking in the hall finally stopped, the gale ceased, and her vision gradually returned, she was finally able to open her eyes to see who the final victor of that clash had been.

The first thing that catches the eye is the dark protective shield that resembles a giant egg.

This thing has been reborn.

Is this the power of the Second Sunlight King that they have seen so far?

The rotting flesh that had tainted the entire hall fell down, forming new enemies that staggered toward this side. It started with minor characters like the Living Dead, and in the end it would probably Smough. Lu Lu Wo thought she might even run into Ornstein, but then what was the point of fighting?

The amount of rotting flesh in the hall seemed to have decreased. After the first wave of attacks, about 20% of the hall area was visibly cleaned up. The rotting flesh that was originally covering the hall had all been turned into monsters and killed in the first wave of attacks.

It feels like it can clear out all the rotten flesh on the field after surviving five attacks at most, which will definitely weaken Aldrich severely.

But who the hell can hold out for that long?

Lu Lu Wo searched everywhere for Elsa, but couldn't find that familiar figure.

A massive shadow cast down from above, accompanied by the viscous sound of a mysterious object slowly writhing, and an indescribable sense of terror enveloped Lu Lu Wo.

She stiffly raised her head, her body trembling violently.

Gwyndolin's face was inches away.

She could even clearly see the other person's dry lips and pale skin, and the evil creature hidden beneath that exterior.

The black, muddy, rotting flesh surged in like a tide, and in the blink of an eye, it climbed onto Lu Lu Wo's body.

Gwyndolin slowly opened his arms to her, and a muffled, bubbly laugh came from the rotting flesh. Before being "embraced," Lu Lu Wo clearly saw the other's lips opening and closing.

As expected, it's the same old story.

Run!

The feeling of being completely enveloped in rotting flesh like mud is something most people have never experienced in their lives, and it's best not to.

Lu Lu Wo felt an indescribable nausea all over her body, her body being slowly devoured, and she was powerless to stop it. It was far more bizarre than a cult sacrifice.

No way, I'd rather die than let this guy get away with this!

With her remaining magic, she conjured a tiny Mage Hand and found the Explosion Crystal in her arms, a "Divine Artifact" that could be exchanged for one in today's invasion environment.

As she rubbed the Explosion Crystal, she also saw Elsa, whom she had been searching for, deep within the black mud. To describe her appearance in one sentence:

She burned out.

A muffled explosion rang out from Aldrich's body, but his appearance only swelled up briefly before returning to normal.

"Click, click, click."

The mundane sounds of chewing echoed through the now-silent Anor Londo.

It's time to eat.

At the same time, in the city lord's room in the Zane Dungeon.

Gong Qiying was sitting on the Shrine watching the recording of Elsa's battle with the Devourer God. His back was straight, and his expression was more serious than before.

The screen was almost completely filled with exploding flames and blades; if you didn't know better, you'd think you were watching the Sunlight King Undead Legion. The scale of the special effects was almost the same.

After watching for a while, he waved his hand, zoomed out the screen, and brought up several other images, all of which were still Elsa's battle scenes.

Upon closer inspection, the Crystal Ball, following its usual practice, integrated the City Lord Panel, Available Monster, and other modules into a single interface, which looked concise and clear, resembling a Windows 11 interface.

Inside the folder named "Battle Remnants Save Files" are hundreds of individual folders, each labeled with a character's name, such as Si Telan, Leon, Da Er, etc.

Looking through Elsa's previous battle footage and then at the fight she just had with Aldrich, Gong Qiying fell silent.

He suddenly realized that he couldn't quite understand how the other party's strength was increasing.

So, you saw the giant blacksmith suddenly unleash his full power after dying? And his strength increased that much after unleashing his full power?

Are people from another world really this sentimental?

Gong Qiying did indeed deliberately arrange the little tragedy of the giant blacksmith to harvest Spirit Power. This was just a normal design method, similar to the one with the Little Pot. He didn't intend to make a fortune from it. But what happened? A Brave whose strength increased dramatically was revealed.

This made him mutter to himself:

"Wow, the plot I designed was this touching?"

Regardless of how well the giant blacksmith plot unfolded, he was very interested in Elsa's idealistic outburst. If he wasn't mistaken, those dazzling flames actually came from the giant sword in her hand, which was the Brave's Divine Artifact.

I've seen Elsa unleash that power before, but it wasn't that strong. This time, it really overturned Gong Qiying's opinion of her strength.

Aldrich's design has three phases: having a dark shield, the dark shield being broken, and the half-health phase. The strength of the dark shield has been adjusted by him, and based on his usual experience, it is indestructible. Only by honestly killing minions to weaken the shield can it be broken.

As it turned out, Elsa's initial, emotionally charged Heavy Chop nearly shattered the protective shield. When Gong Qiying saw it, he thought she could kill Aldrich at first sight, which truly surprised him.

"However, at the last moment, the power she had gained vanished along with the flames."

Gong Qiying added a feature called "Deep" to Aldrich's attacks. When an adventurer is injured, the deepest point slowly erodes the adventurer's life force. The more wounds there are, the faster the erosion occurs, essentially a form of poisoning.

Elsa's flames went out because of the Deep, but her intuition told her that it wasn't entirely the Deep's fault; there must have been other factors at play.

Does this mean that the Brave's Burst Mode can only be used for three minutes, just like Ultraman's?

As for the other Brave, it seems like they haven't heard the news at all.

I wonder what kind of power the legendary monster possesses.

There's no point in just guessing here. Gong Qiying sorted out his thoughts and said:

"My long-term smooth sailing has made me underestimate adventurers. It turns out that many of them have unexpected potential, and I still can't be careless."

Elsa's situation served as a wake-up call for him, who was gradually becoming complacent; he couldn't afford to be complacent.

"Readjust Aldrich's plans and prepare contingency plans for unexpected situations. Also..."

"The Holy Light Church has been quite active lately."

As usual, Lu Lu Wo revived at the campfire, and the first thing she did upon opening her eyes was to kneel on the ground and vomit.

"Vomit--"

Who knows what happened to her inside Aldrich? The Explosion Crystal was transferred away before it even had a chance to take effect. She was eaten by rotting flesh for a while before she died.

She patted her throat and felt as if rotting flesh was crawling inside.

I'm numb. Even if you lose, there's a defeat cutscene.

"I will probably never forget what happened today."

Since Aldrich became the monster she least wanted to challenge, successfully replacing the Mushroom Man.

"Oh, right, Elsa!"

She turned her head and saw that petite figure lying stiffly on the ground, gazing up at the night sky of Irithyll, her body almost covered in frost.

"Are you alright? How are you feeling? You—"

Lu Lu Wo's words came to an abrupt halt, her brows furrowing deeply as she stared intently at the other person's face.

"Um."

Elsa responded softly when she saw it was her, then stared blankly at the sky.

His face showed neither sadness nor anger, only a calm as still as a tranquil lake, devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

Lu Lu Wo felt like she'd seen that expression somewhere before. Right, it was several months ago when she first met Elsa in Bede City!

Back then, the Zane Dungeon hadn't gone berserk yet, Sally was still a young master in the Bede Family, and Elsa's emotions weren't nearly as rich as they are now; she was like a wooden puppet with a blank expression!

Even back then, she at least showed some reaction to things she liked and disliked, but now she has no emotions at all, which is a more serious problem than before.

It looked like a fake human. Lu Lu Wo shuddered, the uncanny valley effect kicking in.

So she prepared to use talk therapy.

"Well, I know you really like the giant blacksmith, but afterimages are still afterimages. Their presence here proves they're gone, I think."

"Hmm." Elsa responded indifferently, showing no reaction even when the giant blacksmith was mentioned. Lu Lu Wo also came to her senses at this moment and realized that the other party's current situation was not entirely caused by the giant blacksmith.

Did Aldrich do something to her? No, then why am I okay?

So why is that? Why did Elsa's emotions revert to their factory settings and return to their original state after just one battle?

At this moment, Elsa blinked, sat up, placed the greatsword in front of her, and said:

"I am the Brave."

"Huh?" Lu Lu Wo was taken aback, thinking, "Weren't you hiding your identity? Why are you suddenly revealing it now?"

"This is my Divine Artifact." She pointed to the greatsword.

"Ah, I think I know that."

It's a bit awkward.

"I finally understand how to use it."

Elsa stroked the greatsword and said expressionlessly:

"Use my emotions to ignite it, and gain strength in return."

Lu Lu Wo slowly opened her mouth wide, and Gong Qiying understood.

No wonder the other party suddenly reverted to "factory settings," because in the battle just now, the greatsword had ignited the emotions she had accumulated over the past few months, exchanging them for formidable power.

After her emotions burned out, she became truly devoid of everything, needing to gradually rebuild her emotions to return to normal, waiting for the next burst of passion.

The greatsword had burned in previous battles, but the burning time was short and the force was not great, so no obvious effects were observed.

This time it was truly burned to ashes.

"Can this ability really be considered a Divine Artifact?"

Lu Lu Wo didn't know what to say. She stared at Elsa for a while, feeling that the power of such Divine Artifact was far too much for a little girl who was not even an adult yet.

A moment later, she moved closer to the other person, enveloping them in her black cloak, and said:

"It's okay, I, no, we'll make you better again."

Elsa's eyes flickered.

It's unclear what they said, but the two didn't leave the dungeon until just before midnight.

"I need to report this situation to the guild," Lu Lu Wo muttered to herself. "No, the most urgent thing is to take Elsa to see a doctor first."

She refused to believe there was no way to alleviate the side effects of using the Divine Artifact!

As for Aldrich and Gwyndolin...

There might be others who went to Anor Londo today. Those expeditionary forces are always busy, so it doesn't matter if she's missing one report.

When she emerged from the underground city, she suddenly noticed that the square was unusually noisy today. Although it was always bustling with people before, it was never like today, filled with howling and wailing.

What's going on? She also saw someone pounding the ground and howling. Wasn't that the Dark Moon Blade that invaded her a few days ago?

Just then, she finally realized what was causing the commotion.

"Your Dark Sun is dead! It has been eaten!"

A sharp sound came from not far away, and I looked in the direction of the sound.

"Only the Holy Light God endures!"

Several Holy Light Follower shouted loudly from the high platform.

Behind them, a hastily erected screen was projecting the image of the Image Stone.

The footage was very rough, with constant shaking, but one thing was captured very clearly.

That's Aldrich!

How did the Holy Light Church find out so quickly?!