Ulcerated Tree Spirit

The Tarnished searched everywhere, but found neither a new path nor a way back to the Stranded Graveyard. He spent an unknown stretch of time wandering through the enormous tomb before inspiration finally struck.

Since every previous path had involved jumping down from above, it stood to reason that the way to another level would also start on the third floor. And the only place on that entire floor where he could jump down was the stone bridge where he had found the Erdtree's Favor.

The Tarnished returned to the stone bridge and carefully inspected its edges. At last, his exceptional eyesight picked out a clue.

There was actually a fairly spacious platform in the seemingly bottomless abyss. It was simply so poorly lit that the darkness made the drop look endless. This was a path that would have been very easy to miss.

"I have to admit, they put an incredible amount of thought into this tomb. It's almost enough to make me wonder who's buried here." Whoever it was, judging by the scale of the place, they had to have been a hero at the very least.

The Tarnished wasted no more time and jumped onto the platform below.

"There's still more? Does this place ever end? Just how big is it?" Shortly after landing on the new platform, the Tarnished spotted a faint reflection below. Clearly, there was another path there. He jumped down again, and reddish sewage splashed into his face, carrying waves of rotten stench.

"Cough, cough. That smell really goes to your head." Wiping the foul water from his face, the Tarnished headed toward the white torches planted behind him. A lift stood in the center. As it rose, the chariot's rumbling grew clear once more.

The Tarnished had now arrived directly above a stretch of the chariot's route.

"So this is how it's laid out. That chariot is no less intimidating from above... Hmm?" Just then, the Tarnished sensed an unusual presence to his right. Turning, he saw a knight in silvery-white armor, wielding a halberd, appear in spirit form on the fairly narrow platform.

"A Banished Knight?" A vivid red cloak covered the spirit's entire helmet, but the distinctive patterns on his armor still allowed the Tarnished to identify him.

The Banished Knights, once known as Storm Knights and also called the Wind of Stormveil, were the knights who had served Stormveil's former king, the Storm Lord. Each was a brave and accomplished warrior, skilled in a rich variety of Storm Combat Arts. After the Storm Lord's defeat at Godfrey's hands, they had lost their former name. Yet their valor had earned them the right to retain the title of knight even after their defeat.

Not every Banished Knight was a worthy opponent, however.

"I never expected to find an old opponent in this tomb." The Tarnished immediately drew the curved sword from his back. In this terrain, he could not afford to underestimate a Banished Knight, even a spirit. Their Storm Combat Arts covered a wide area, putting him at a disadvantage here. He had to finish the knight before he unleashed his storm.

The Banished Knight swept his halberd, and wind sprang from nowhere within the tomb. Its powerful pressure cut into the Tarnished as he charged through it.

His reason for facing the Banished Knight's wind head-on was simple. The halberd already offered a reach advantage, and with the added threat of the storm, he had to close the distance as quickly as possible. Banished Knights were nothing like the worthless rabble outside. They were truly powerful warriors, possessing not only superb martial skill but thoroughly mastered supernatural abilities. Their control over storms only made them more formidable.

"A fine attack... If you still had your wings from back then, you might have knocked me down below. But as a spirit, you're not quite up to it." Covered in tiny cuts, the Tarnished had already reached the Banished Knight and swung his blade. The knight hurriedly parried, then swiftly countered with an elbow strike.

Both retreated several steps. Though only a spirit, the knight retained his combat instincts and seventy percent of his strength in life. But a spirit was still only a spirit. After a brief further clash with the Tarnished, he could no longer hold his form and dissolved into white mist within the tomb.

After defeating the Banished Knight's spirit, the Tarnished picked up the Stonesword Key from a corpse slumped at the edge of the platform, his gaze following the chariot's course.

"Is there really no way to destroy that thing?" Seeing it over and over was bound to become irritating, especially when it had caused him so much trouble.

He looked up at the overhead beam and spotted three enormous jars hanging from it, each well over ten meters tall.

"Huh?" The jars looked immensely heavy, yet only three ropes held them up. The design made no sense. Why were there enormous jars here, and why did their supports look so flimsy?

"I've found proof that the tomb's builder cut corners." The Tarnished narrowed his eyes and held his Hand Ballista, his gaze moving back and forth between the jars and the chariot.

"Should I give it a try?" Perhaps this arrangement was no oversight, but something someone had specifically prepared to destroy the chariot. Those jars might just be able to smash the wretched thing outright.

Without further hesitation, the Tarnished calculated the chariot's course and speed, then fired a bolt straight through one of the ropes. The enormous jar crashed onto the chariot. Two consecutive explosions followed, and the erupting blue energy blasted the chariot to pieces.

"Wow!" The Tarnished clapped in delight. He had never expected the jar to possess such power, or to contain such an enormous amount of magic.

"If I could take the other two jars with me, I could throw them at any troublesome enemies I ran into... Just thinking about it is incredible. Too bad I can't carry them." The Tarnished felt rather disappointed. The jars really were tremendously destructive. Though they only matched the power of an ordinary swing of Godfrey's axe, that was still terrifying in this age of decline.

"Why was there something inside that chariot?" Something glittered among the wreckage. The Tarnished jumped down from above and approached, discovering an ancient wooden bow inside, fashioned after the Erdtree.

It was called the Erdtree Greatbow, a large bow that had existed since the height of the Erdtree's power. The greater its wielder's faith in the Erdtree, the more powerful the bow became.

It was a fine weapon. Even without faith in the Erdtree, the greatbow's raw power alone could wound a flying dragon's wings. With special arrows, it might even pierce straight through them.

The Tarnished did not take it immediately. Carrying a greatbow would be far too cumbersome. He stood 1.8 meters tall, while the bow measured 1.9 meters. Bringing it along would be a real nuisance. He would leave it until he had finished dealing with the tomb.

"Come to think of it, isn't this the second floor?" He recognized the place where the blade-wielding spirits had surrounded him earlier. After all that wandering, he had ended up here again. That worked out nicely.

As he followed the slope downward, numerous soldier spirits appeared around him, carrying swords and shields and wearing cloaks similar to the Banished Knight's.

"Exiles..." These were the men who had not been granted knighthood after the Storm Lord's defeat. They had been the most basic rank of soldier back then. By present-day standards, they held the same position as the dozens of soldiers at Gatefront Ruins.

"Could there really be a Banished Knight buried in this tomb?" Too many members of Stormveil Castle's forces had appeared here. And this was Limgrave itself, Stormveil Castle's home territory, so finding their tomb here would hardly be unusual.

After dispatching the soldier spirits along the way, the Tarnished reached a fork. One path led downward, the other upward. From the presence he sensed below, that route likely led to the Place of Return to the Erdtree, so he decided to explore the upper path first.

At the end of that path was a Banished Knight's spirit, kneeling before a corpse in a knight's salute. Crimson light shone from his chest-the power of a dragon.

"A Banished Knight and a dragon... What a familiar combination." The Tarnished stopped a short distance away. Hearing the sound behind him, the Banished Knight slowly rose, sword and shield in hand, and stood guard before the corpse.

"Don't let your obsessions imprison you." Judging by that stance, another battle was unavoidable.

"Banished Knights really are something else." Watching the knight dissolve into white mist, then looking at the deep gouges the storm had scoured into the ground, the Tarnished could not help praising him. Even as a spirit, he had been stronger than Godrick's knights outside.

A red seal fell to the ground. The Tarnished was about to approach when the crimson object flew straight toward his hands.

"What? This is an Incantation Seal." The dragon's overwhelming might deepened the Tarnished's resonance with dragons, building on his existing affinity for their power.

"It actually fused with me..." As far as he recalled, there had never been a case of a catalyst merging with its user. His body had become rather strange since his revival, and he had no way of knowing why.

"This power of fusion is almost like... But if that's the case, why can't I freely absorb the runes of the Lands Between..." The Tarnished flexed his hands, abandoned that line of thought, and headed back.

The moment he entered the Place of Return to the Erdtree, the Tarnished noticed something wrong. A twisted, hideous, foul-smelling unidentified thing dropped from overhead.

"What is that?" The monster's skin resembled bark, yet was not entirely bark. Scarlet flesh mingled with it, making it look revolting. Several rows of short, centipede-like legs as thin as roots lined its sides, and a pair of long, slender claws even protruded from the front of its body. Its entire form writhed along the ground like a winding snake.

"The Erdtree's presence..." After dodging the monster's first round of attacks, the Tarnished looked up at the ceiling and discovered that a section of the root in the center had broken off.

"This thing is a rotten root? A root came to life and turned into a monster like this?"

The Putrid Tree Spirit attacked with savage fury, terrifying shrieks pouring from its mouth. Its enormous body did nothing to hinder its agility, and its erratic attacks only made it more unpredictable.

The tree spirit's enormous body occupied almost the entire Place of Return to the Erdtree. The Tarnished maneuvered around it, dodging countless attacks and taking countless hits. Finally, he traded injury for injury and successfully cut through its tough bark with his curved sword. His left hand transformed into a dragon claw and plunged into the wound. Strengthened by the seal, the claw expanded inside the Putrid Tree Spirit.

"Disgusting." Pulling out his dragon claw, the Tarnished looked with revulsion at the stinking rotten flesh in his hand. The Putrid Tree Spirit suddenly rushed aside, putting distance between them.

"Huh?" Watching the Putrid Tree Spirit retreat, the Tarnished grew wary. Then it opened its bloody maw, golden radiance surging from its throat. A shock wave of golden energy shot from its twisted, filthy mouth.

"Tch. Firing a cannon, are you?" The Tarnished darted and twisted out of the way. The tree spirit's shock wave slammed into the walls of the Place of Return to the Erdtree, nearly destroying the entire tomb.

"I don't believe you can do that a second time." The Tarnished sheathed his curved sword, freeing both hands. Powerful dragon claws manifested again. He darted in front of the somewhat exhausted tree spirit and tore away the bark before him, as though intent on ripping it apart.

"A dragon's power really is extraordinary." Its destructive power far exceeded that of Samar's curved sword. The Putrid Tree Spirit lashed out wildly, but it had fought the Tarnished for too long, and the shock wave had drained much of its strength. Its attacks were now far weaker than before.

"Battle doesn't tire me out..."

"It only makes me fight harder." A bloodthirsty red gleam flashed through the Tarnished's eyes. He was about to finish the Ulcerated Tree Spirit in the next instant.

But at that very moment, the Storm Without Beginning began to blow through the tomb...