Goodbye to nudity

Tree Sentinels were heavily armored knights chosen from the royal Golden Lineage to serve and guard the Erdtree, the elite among elites. Their pure gold armor and the tree-shaped ornaments on their helmets were their hallmarks.

Rider and mount moved as one. They had repelled countless enemies seeking to harm the Erdtree, their attacks striking with overwhelming force.

How strange. This place is quite far from Leyndell. Why would a Tree Sentinel be here? The man watched the Tree Sentinel patrolling nearby, puzzled. These knights had once been a mainstay of Leyndell's defenses. Why had one come all the way to the region around Stormveil Castle? Was it because the Elden Ring had shattered?

Moreover, the Tree Sentinel before him looked distinctly strange. He seemed less like a living person than a puppet following some command, endlessly repeating his patrol without a trace of vitality.

The Tree Sentinel was still formidable. Though the man now had weapons, breaking through that massive armor and heavy shield would be difficult. He could not afford a head-on clash; avoiding the knight was the better choice.

With that, the man concealed his presence and slipped through the grass, keeping to the Tree Sentinel's blind spots.

When he spotted an abandoned church nearby, he sprinted forward and vaulted over its crumbling wall, taking shelter inside.

"Something's not right... that Tree Sentinel really is sluggish." His guess had been spot-on. The Tree Sentinel rigidly followed a fixed route like a puppet, which was why the man had evaded his patrol so easily.

"Heh... that's because they've all gone mad." The slightly hoarse voice came from a man wearing a red cotton cap, his face covered so thoroughly that only his eyes remained visible. Beside him stood a donkey laden with goods.

"You're... a Wandering Merchant?"

"Oh... you know of me... what, do you want to kill me too... like those madmen outside?" the Wandering Merchant said indifferently. Clearly, he did not fear death.

"I know a little of your reputation, so I'll get straight to the point." The man glanced at the goods laid out on the ground. "As you can see, I'm a Tarnished returning to the Lands Between. Tell me what's happening here now. You'll be paid, and I trust you won't refuse."

The man turned his palm upward, and runes gathered in his hand as a ball of light. These were the runes he had obtained by defeating the Grafted Scion and Varre. With the Elden Ring shattered, they ought to be in great demand.

"Haha... you don't seem like those madmen... this looks to be a pleasant transaction." A flicker of delight passed through the Wandering Merchant's clouded eyes. Yes... without the protection of gold, this is the only way we can barely keep ourselves safe.

"Then allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Kale. And who might you be, Tarnished who has traveled so far to the Lands Between?"

"A name? That doesn't matter. Just call me Tarnished." The man had no objection to that title. His original name had perished with him the moment he died in battle.

"Very well... then, Tarnished, what information do you seek?" Kale had not truly wanted his name. It had merely been a courtesy.

"What's happened to the Lands Between? I've found that the Sites of Grace have lost their connections, and the guidance is intermittent. Has the Elden Ring really shattered?"

"Ah... are you a Tarnished who can see the Guidance of Grace? How unusual."

"What do you mean?" Could it be that the other Tarnished couldn't see grace and its trailing guidance?

"You really are badly out of touch. Since you're paying so generously, I'll explain it properly."

"As you can see, Golden Grace is on the verge of collapse. Those who once enjoyed its blessing went mad when the Elden Ring shattered, becoming things neither human nor ghost."

"All of this happened because the Eternal Queen, Marika, betrayed them—she smashed the Elden Ring with her own hands, setting off the Shattering." At this, Kale's eyes took on a wistful look.

"Life is truly unpredictable... now we actually have to be grateful that Golden Grace never protected our Wandering Merchant people. Otherwise, we'd have gone mad along with them."

Besides, the Erdtree... has a blood feud with me and my people. I'd love nothing more than to see it burned to ashes and the Elden Ring ground to dust. Only then could our hatred be appeased, Kale muttered inwardly, lowering his head.

That said, they still needed runes. The more chaotic the world became, the more they needed the strength to protect themselves, and runes were the means to secure that strength. That was why they traveled as merchants, exchanging their goods for runes.

"Oh..." The Tarnished nodded slightly. So it was true. Marika had acted after all.

"Then what happened to Marika?"

"The queen was imprisoned for her treason. On your travels, you'll likely see plenty of statues depicting her hanging on display."

"..." The Tarnished glanced aside, seemingly lost in thought.

"Oh, right. Here's a special gift-I'll tell you one more thing... after Queen Marika was imprisoned, her children began slaughtering one another, setting off the Shattering. Now the world is a complete mess. The once-glorious golden age is gone for good," Kale said with a hint of gloating.

"So it seems... but why did you say it was unusual for me to see the guidance of grace?"

"I don't know the details either. After the Shattering ended, you Tarnished seem to have been called back to the Lands Between. Many returned... but barely one in ten thousand could see the guidance of grace. Many returning Tarnished simply died in obscurity."

"Then how long has it been since the first Tarnished returned to the Lands Between?" The Tarnished frowned.

"That's... hard to say. As you can see, the world is in utter chaos now, and the concept of time no longer matters much. We lost track long ago."

"..."

"Never mind." The Tarnished did not dwell on it. He merely crouched to examine Kale's wares. "You've got quite a few interesting things here." He pointed them out in turn: a telescope, a torch, a set of chainmail, and a Crafting Kit.

"Well? Are my runes enough to cover the information and these items?"

"Heh, I'll give you a discount. We've gotten along well enough. After all, finding someone you can have a proper conversation with in this world is a luxury in itself. Take them." Kale waved a hand.

"You're surprisingly nice," the Tarnished teased.

"In return, make sure you come back and give me more business. Don't die along the way."

"Die? I won't die. At worst, I'll lose an arm or a leg." As they chatted, the Tarnished had already put on the entire set of chainmail. "You know, this fits rather well."

"What are you talking about? You Tarnished are all roughly the same build, aren't you? Apart from the difference between men and women."

"Not at all. There are some big fellows among the Tarnished too. Wasn't the first Elden Lord one of them?" What on earth had that old barbarian eaten to grow so huge?

"Hahaha! A lord must stand apart from the rest!" Kale laughed. After they spoke a while longer, the Tarnished rekindled the church's Site of Grace, then turned toward the Tree Sentinel, who was still mechanically repeating his orders nearby. Raising his two golden swords, the Tarnished walked slowly forward.

"You're a proper opponent. I hope you won't bore me like that Grafted Scion and Varre." A cold gleam flashed in the Tarnished's eyes. After his brief recuperation, he had grown more accustomed to his body. Even without the chainmail, even with his strength far below what it had once been, he was confident he could defeat this soulless Tree Sentinel.

Finishing another circuit of his patrol, the Tree Sentinel came face-to-face with the approaching Tarnished. Instantly, he drove his massive golden horse forward like a madman, swinging his enormous halberd as he charged, occasionally repeating, "Intruder! Kill!"

"How dedicated." The Tarnished ducked beneath the Tree Sentinel's sweeping strike and seized the opening to thrust into a thinner section of the horse's armor. The golden horse showed no sign of panic despite the attack. The Tree Sentinel pulled it up onto its hind legs, executed an incredible turn, and slammed the Erdtree Greatshield on his left arm toward the Tarnished.

Crossing his swords, the Tarnished braced against the heavy shield's impact. His legs sank into the ground, a testament to the Tree Sentinel's immense strength.

The fighting spirit in the Tarnished's eyes burned brighter. Both swords struck, dull clangs of metal ringing out around the church. Then he delivered a front kick that actually forced the heavy golden shield aside.

Taking advantage of the instant the Tree Sentinel stiffened, the Tarnished unleashed a combat technique as dense as a rain of swords, leaving slash after slash across the knight's hard armor.

"!!" Acting on combat instinct, the Tree Sentinel made his golden horse stomp the ground. The violent shock wave hurled the Tarnished away, but even as he flew backward, he threw one of his ornamental straight swords at the Tree Sentinel's head.

The speeding sword plunged straight into the helmet of the Tree Sentinel, who was unprepared for the sudden attack. His armor was so hard that the blade did not reach his head, but that was fine. They had each managed to disrupt the other to some degree.

"You're good... but far too cumbersome." Holding his straight sword in a reverse grip, the Tarnished crouched low like a white wolf poised to spring. His entire bearing changed. In the blink of an eye, he was beneath the Tree Sentinel and severed one of the warhorse's legs. The knight immediately lost his balance and tilted sideways.

The Tarnished leaped onto the horse's back at once. One hand seized the straight sword embedded in the helmet, obstructing the Tree Sentinel's vision, while the other swept its reverse-gripped blade toward his neck.

"The game's over." The Tree Sentinel could no longer react. Just as the Tarnished had said, he was a heavily armored soldier wielding a polearm, ill-suited to fighting an enemy at such close range.

The Tarnished drove both hands forward, plunging one sword into the knight's head and the other straight through his throat. The Tree Sentinel died on the spot, and a vast quantity of runes streamed from his body, all of them absorbed by the Tarnished.

The bodies of knight and warhorse gradually crumbled into dust and dispersed into the air, leaving only the heavy armor he had worn, his halberd, and his greatshield.

"The grace upon it is so faint... has this age truly reached its end?" The Tarnished touched the solid golden armor. Once, dazzling Golden Grace had rested upon it. Now that blessing was so thin it was almost nonexistent, a lamentable sight.

Otherwise, his current self would not have been able to defeat the Tree Sentinel so easily.

"Never mind. Since this is your choice... I'll walk this path with you, Marika." It also happened to suit the plan he had in mind.

"I wonder where that big barbarian went... shouldn't this be the job of a 'lord' like him?" With the golden halberd in one hand and the golden shield in the other, the Tarnished walked toward the Site of Grace in the Church of Elleh. He intended to store these weapons for now. They would come in handy eventually.

As for the armor... unfortunately, it did not suit his build at all, and he could not fit into it. He could only sell it.