Great Rune

"I never imagined... Godrick, the tyrant who threw Limgrave into chaos, would die so easily." Nepheli glanced at Godrick's frail, withered body. None of it felt quite real.

"This guy was too weak." The Tarnished put away his weapon and approached Godrick.

"His face does bear some resemblance to Godfrey and Godwyn." The Tarnished murmured to himself. Nepheli, standing nearby, did not catch his words. She only saw him reveal a golden emblem over Godrick's corpse, at an angle she could not quite make out.

There really does seem to be something unusual about him... Nepheli thought silently.

"Come to think of it, wasn't every Demigod supposed to have a Great Rune? Where's Godrick's?" The Tarnished had expected it to fly out of its bearer's body after defeat, just like ordinary runes, but things seemed a little different from what he had imagined.

"The Great Runes? According to my foster father, their true forms are kept atop tall towers called Divine Towers," Nepheli explained.

"Why make it so complicated? Isn't the whole point to make the Demigods kill each other fighting over runes?" Runes were things that stirred up conflict by their very nature. The Great Runes presumably followed the same principle.

"Look, there seems to be a Great Rune's light inside Godrick. He apparently couldn't wield its power, so its glow is very faint."

"This pattern..." Though the Great Rune's glow within Godrick was faint, the Tarnished recognized it at a glance. It was the pattern at the very center of the Elden Ring. "Godrick actually got the central pattern... how ironic." In terms of standing, this rune should have ranked highest, yet it had ended up with a useless fool who had no ambition to improve himself and relied solely on crooked methods.

Had Godwyn not died, this rune would undoubtedly have belonged to him. It was only because of Godwyn's death that Godrick had gotten his turn.

After flickering several times, the rune within the body became a tiny speck of light and flew into the distance. Its path was perfectly straight, as though it had fixed upon its destination.

Could the Divine Tower be over there?

"Go on. This Great Rune belongs to you," Nepheli said with a faint smile. "There are many Demigods with Great Runes. I believe we'll meet at the Elden throne one day."

"All right... if you ever need anything, come find me." As before, the Tarnished left Nepheli a string of his Golden Signs so she could contact him whenever she needed him.

"Oh? This place is..." Following the direction in which the Great Rune had flown, the Tarnished reached a long corridor. Statues of Banished Knights holding halberds knelt toward its center on both sides. At its end stood a magnificent structure, with enormous statues flanking a stairway that reached toward the sky. Among them were knights and priests.

This structure did not exist in the Tarnished's memories. No... that was not quite right. It had simply changed beyond recognition. The far end of this place had once been where Stormveil Castle's soldiers and residents worshipped the storm. Now, it seemed to have been rebuilt, replaced by the Divine Tower belonging to Godrick's Great Rune.

"Oh, now that looks impressive. I have to say, the people on the side of gold really love these colossal buildings. People are only so big, so why make the buildings this huge? Damn exploitation." The Tarnished climbed the steps to a broad platform perched atop a cliff. A towering spire pierced the gloomy sky, while the many statues of [saints] lining the avenue emphasized its importance.

"So this is the Divine Tower. With all this pomp, is there some powerful enemy guarding the inside too... oh... I don't know about inside, but there certainly are some outside." Seeing a huge Golem lying motionless on the ground, the Tarnished grew a little more alert. When he looked ahead, he could see another Golem holding a massive bow, aiming straight at his position.

As the sound of its bowstring being drawn rang out, the other sleeping Golems began to awaken. At a glance, there were four or five Golem bodies, but only two actually rose. The rest were probably already broken beyond repair.

Still, three Golems were somewhat interesting. At the very least, they posed more of a challenge than Godrick.

"Not much better, though." Paying the three Golems no heed, the Tarnished strode into the bow-wielding Golem's range. A huge arrow wrapped in spiraling air pressure instantly hurtled toward him, blasting a crater into the ground with a thunderous crash.

"I have to admit, this bridge is pretty well built. Looks like they reinforced it before building the Divine Tower. I wonder if it can withstand the next bombardment, though." A cold smile curled across the Tarnished's lips. He darted to within a dozen or so meters of the three Golems and unleashed Aspect of the Crucible's Tail, sweeping at their relatively vulnerable ankles.

The Golems here were stronger than the one outside Castle Morne, but not by much. They were all on the verge of breaking down, so all three dropped to their knees under the attack from Aspect of the Crucible's Tail. The Tarnished had grown far stronger since Castle Morne, while the most obvious difference in the Golems before him was simply their number.

"Heh, saying you were more trouble than Godrick really was giving you too much credit. Even Godrick could take you out easily. Good for you, Godrick. There's finally something you could beat."

The fallen Golems could do nothing but await their slaughter. In moments, the Tarnished had crushed the cores in their chests. He crossed their ruined remains and arrived before the Divine Tower's doors.

"These doors are ridiculously big. Seriously, they're bigger than a Troll. What a complete waste. Hah, typical nobles." The Tarnished kicked open the tightly shut doors and entered the Divine Tower. A huge Lift stood in the center, while the areas on either side were left open. One careless misstep would send someone plunging into the abyss.

"Just like that graveyard. Always cutting corners in the strangest places. You built this enormous tower, and you couldn't spare a little more material? Did you really have to leave holes everywhere?" Shaking his head, the Tarnished walked toward the Lift.

The Divine Tower was so tall that the Lift took quite some time to ascend. As it gradually approached the top, the light of grace shone down from above.

Boom!

With the loud crash that marked the Lift reaching its destination and stopping, a Site of Grace came into view, along with a breathtaking vista made possible by the Divine Tower's sky-piercing height.

"Is this a Divine Tower or an observation tower? The view's pretty good." The Tarnished activated the Site of Grace as he joked.

"It seems you succeeded. This place is... a Divine Tower." Melina looked around, though in the end her gaze still settled on the unparalleled scenery.

"You show up every time I activate a Site of Grace. It's become a tradition." The Tarnished glanced at Melina with a smile, but she merely tilted her head in slight puzzlement before turning back to the view.

"The scenery... is beautiful." Melina's calm, aloof expression remained unchanged, but a trace of pleasure showed in her eyes.

"You seem to like it. So do I."

"..." Melina nodded gently.

"No matter how many times I see a view like this, I never get tired of it..." The Tarnished quietly sat down as well, admiring the scenery in the distance.

"I wouldn't call myself a wholly good person. No fewer people have died at my hands than at Godrick's... but..."

"I can still tell beauty from hell. It's precisely because I've witnessed true hell that I've gained a new understanding of beauty." The Tarnished looked at his right hand, a shadow passing through his eyes.

"Hell..." Drawn in by his words, Melina watched him quietly.

"Conflict will never end, and neither will killing. But by the same token, no matter how terrible an age may be, the light of humanity will always shine somewhere. That light lives forever in the soul of every person, every living being. I will never allow the Greater Will and the Golden Order to shackle that spirit."

"Melina, what do you think a lord is?" The Tarnished looked at her with a complicated smile.

"A lord... I'm not entirely sure."

"Someone once told me that strength was the reason to become a lord. Others said a lord should have no emotions. But neither seems right to me."

"A lord exists to break the barriers that keep people from moving forward, to guide those who have lost their way. That's why a lord must have feelings."

"A lord must also shoulder burdens and press onward. Behind a lord stand countless people. When they can no longer advance and find themselves trapped, someone must step forward to break their shackles."

"Mel, I once lacked what it took to become a lord. Back then, I was too young and reckless. I handed the throne to Godfrey while I went off in pursuit of that so-called wind of freedom. But in the end, I realized that freedom for myself alone didn't seem to be my ultimate goal. What was I truly searching for?"

"..." Hearing the Tarnished's rather strange nickname for her, Melina wanted to speak, but she could not bear to interrupt him.

"Only when I left the Lands Between and fought across the seemingly endless Land of Fog, right up to the moment of my death, did I understand what I wanted."

"To become a lord... but not the kind of lord the Elden Ring recognizes. What I intend to do is break every established order, along with the Greater Will and its absolute divinity."

"Human feelings must not, and cannot, be bound by something without feeling. People need leaders, but even more than that, they need autonomy. Dictatorship cannot last. From beginning to end, a person's true master is always themselves."

"Their own master... you mean to..." Melina sounded startled, her voice no longer as steady as usual.

"Heh. There is no god on my path. Only a lord, one who understands suffering and human feeling... and even that lord merely carves a new path for the people. Thought is a magnificent thing, and humans and the living beings of the Lands Between happen to possess it. So the time has come..." The Tarnished slowly rose and drew the Curved Sword from his back.

"The hour of liberation is here." As the Tarnished's words fell, the entire Divine Tower trembled, as though the Greater Will had been angered by his declaration.

"Greater Will, care to see which happens first? Will you destroy me, or will I reach the inside of the Erdtree? I know you can't take the field yourself." The Tarnished showed no fear at the sight. An utterly divine, unfeeling existence like the Greater Will would only remain behind the scenes.

He did not know what means it possessed, but it would never intervene in person unless he truly confronted it. Otherwise, the moment Marika shattered the Elden Ring, both the Greater Will and the Erdtree would have struck back at her and changed the situation. Yet they had not, and the Golden Order's collapse continued.

"Tarnished, you..." Melina stared blankly at the Tarnished as he declared war on the Greater Will. She could almost see a supreme existence descending from the heavens, facing off against the seemingly insignificant Tarnished before her.

Why do I feel this way... why does it look as though they're evenly matched? Is this what my heart longs for... am I dissatisfied with the Greater Will too...? Questions lingered in Melina's heart. At that moment, she could not understand.