"Is the Dragon King trying to take us down with him?" Jude Jiqu pressed close to Ye Sheng. Much of the signal cable between them had already been drawn into its reel to keep it from snagging on obstacles in the water.
"To the Dragon King, we're probably just bugs. Would you take bugs down with you? My guess is that the explosion triggered other mechanisms in his bedchamber." Ye Sheng remained calm. "The Dragon King wouldn't be bored enough to install a self-destruct device in his own home. It might be a defense system or an escape system."
An idea struck him!
Perhaps they could return to the bedchamber and investigate. It had windows, but beyond them stood blue-black metal walls. That suggested the room probably wasn't permanently fixed at the sunless bottom of the city. It had originally stood somewhere sunlight could reach, then been moved by some enormous mechanical apparatus.
If the bronze jar had contained the Dragon King's egg, wouldn't that make this an escape mechanism?
Imagine some day in ancient times when a powerful enemy invaded the Bronze City-perhaps a mighty Hybrid, perhaps another Dragon King. Norton, the Bronze and Fire King, had been defeated, so he hid his egg in the bedchamber and activated the alchemical machinery, concealing himself in the deepest part of the city.
Ancient times had no weapons capable of destroying such an enormous metal city, and Norton himself stood at the pinnacle of Word Spirits that wielded metal and flame. This place was absolutely safe.
Could some kind of reverse transformation be happening now?
Ye Sheng looked toward the passage leading to the great hall. His pupils suddenly contracted.
Lu Mingfei, who had cut off communications, had now removed his diving helmet. He stood alone, facing the passage with his back to the two of them.
What was he doing?
Ye Sheng drew a deep breath and checked the readings on his helmet display one by one: external pressure, temperature, depth, diver heart rate, and... oxygen concentration!
The oxygen reading ticked upward slowly. It was actually rising, almost to a breathable level.
The Bronze City hadn't activated some strange "burial protocol" or "hidden backup power." It was reconfiguring itself, and it had opened a connection to the outside. Air was indeed escaping rapidly under the water pressure, but fresh air was pouring in as well, perhaps through a fissure in the mountain, perhaps through some ventilation shaft secretly connected to the outside.
"Jiqu, check the pressure inside your suit. We can take our helmets off." Ye Sheng felt his heart pounding, more joyfully than even when the suspected Dragon King had been chasing them. They had been trained to suppress panic and fear in dangerous situations, but never to suppress joy.
Slaying dragons meant dancing on the edge of death. If they survived, they deserved to celebrate.
After confirming that the pressure difference was within safe limits, they removed their helmets just as Lu Mingfei had.
"Lu Mingfei, let's go back to the bedchamber!" Breathing the rust-scented air, Ye Sheng immediately called out to him.
But Lu Mingfei made a strange gesture. He looked back and raised a hand, signaling them not to approach.
Lu Mingfei had been the first to realize the air was breathable, but he hadn't had time to warn the other two. His hearing was exceptionally sharp, and through the flooded passage, he had heard a heartbeat growing steadily clearer, resonating like a drum, steady and powerful.
It came from the great hall at the other end.
"The Dragon King isn't dead. And he's come out." Lu Mingfei held Red Skies, his voice as level as ever.
Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu stopped abruptly. They heard it too: a heartbeat, swelling through the thick bronze walls and passage, thunderous and imposing. It made them imagine blood surging through his veins like a great river breaking free of winter ice, carrying immense power to every cell.
"There's a route underwater. We dive, then withdraw. On the river, we'll have the advantage in firepower!" Ye Sheng made his decision immediately.
Lu Mingfei shook his head. "We can't get away. This is his home. Someone has to stay behind and cover the retreat."
"How do you know without trying?" Jude Jiqu was growing anxious too. "We leave together."
"Do you trust me?" Lu Mingfei suddenly asked.
Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu both froze, unsure what the S-rank meant by asking that now. As his teammates, of course they trusted their junior.
"We do." Ye Sheng could only answer that way, trying to calm Lu Mingfei.
Lu Mingfei smiled faintly. "Good. Then I'll win!"
His Golden Eyes lit up, and he activated Blood Rage at the same time. A second thunderous heartbeat rang through the bronze cavern, no less imposing than the Dragon King's in the neighboring hall.
Even though they had seen those molten eyes before, Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu still lowered their gazes involuntarily, struggling to breathe.
Yet somehow, the panic in their hearts vanished.
That was right.
They came from the most elite dragon-slaying school, an academy whose mission was to kill every dragon that awakened!
And although the young man before them had only just enrolled, he was undoubtedly the finest among them-an S-rank! His presence made it seem as though the Four Great Monarchs were nothing at all. He would handle everything as easily as earning credits in a practical class.
On the ancient battlefields of dragon slayers, it was extraordinary people like him who had sent those awakened reptilian monsters back into slumber, time and again!
"Don't waste any more time, Ye Sheng." Wisps of scorching vapor rose from Lu Mingfei's body, his voice deep.
Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu exchanged a glance. Both secured their specially made Equipment Department diving suits and began increasing the pressure inside. Then they took one final look at Lu Mingfei, jumped into the water, and began their descent.
Lu Mingfei turned back, gripped Red Skies, and plunged into the flooded passage.
At last, he had nothing left to worry about behind him.
After surfacing at the other end, he walked slowly up the great hall's now-slanted floor. The water had already risen considerably. The toppled snake-faced human statues lay at every angle, some submerged, others half exposed, their silver eyeballs gleaming in the firelight.
At the end of the path that had once led toward the bronze tree stood a dazzling figure, seemingly wrapped in molten lava. Terrifying heat warped the air, making the rising flames and smoke flicker and fragment like his reflection on the water.
Chapter 29: Lu Mingfei's Resolve
Few people knew that the Elden Lord had fought rather deviously in his early days.
Because he could revive again and again at the Golden Grace, whenever Lu Mingfei encountered a powerful enemy, he gathered information through death. Once he knew the enemy inside out, he could strike directly at its weak point. Take the Dragonclad Tree Sentinels, for instance: those towering cavalrymen clad in heavy golden armor actually had very little resistance to poison. So Lu Mingfei gathered poisonous flowers and made poison powder to use against them.
These were unequal battles, and the method always worked.
In a sense, the Elden Ring had shattered because of its imperfection-the fate of the world itself. Marika understood this well. She also knew that even if the many demigods holding fragments of the Order fought among themselves, they could hardly change fate, because they were all caught within it. So she had sent the Tarnished out of the Lands Between beforehand, to introduce uncertainty into the fate yet to come.
As a Tarnished, Lu Mingfei was the moving piece, while the enemies of the Lands Between remained fixed. By striking the static with the dynamic, he always held the initiative.
And so, with his temporary maiden, Melina, he advanced toward the Erdtree, killing enemies by reloading along the way.
Although he had learned during their journey what Melina intended to do-use herself as kindling to burn the Erdtree-Lu Mingfei had always felt that the girl beside him wasn't someone with a strong urge to destroy herself.
At worst, they could search elsewhere in the Lands Between. Perhaps there was other kindling. Then Lu Mingfei could simply tie that person up and toss them straight into the Fire Giant's enormous forge. That would get the job done just as well.
But all of that depended on Melina not stubbornly clinging to her plan, and being willing to discuss it with him.
The Order had shattered, and the Erdtree had grown thorns of rejection. Even a would-be lord bearing fragments of the Order could not enter it upon reaching Leyndell to repair the broken Elden Ring. There was only one path: use someone who could see the "vision of flame" as kindling, burn the Erdtree with the Giant's Flame, then release death, forcing it to open its sealed interior and admit one who was worthy to save the Lands Between.
From beginning to end, Melina had borne that destiny without doubt or fear. So she had no need to consult or discuss it with the would-be lord beside her. She would never say anything like, "Hey, Lu Mingfei, do you think I should really jump into that fire?"
And so, amid the swirling snow, atop that enormous forge that seemed to stand at the edge of the world, she left the Tarnished no chance to refuse. She put him to sleep and cast herself into the flames.
"I have long watched the Lands Between, thinking that this world must be repaired, and that death must come to all equally... Are you ready? Have you prepared yourself to commit a cardinal sin?"
Those were the last words Lu Mingfei heard Melina speak before he lost consciousness. Years later, recalling them, he would still wonder what kind of cardinal sin that was. It was only burning a tree. Choosing the power of the Frenzied Flame and burning the entire world-that was a cardinal sin that truly required preparation and deliberation.
But he had been too young then, too cowardly. He hadn't understood what people's words truly meant, hadn't known what shape his own future would take. Words like "fate" and "the world" had easily frightened him.
And so he had never had the right to choose.
After that, he grew silent and formidable. He always wore heavy armor, always traveled covered in wounds, from Crumbling Farum Azula to the burning Leyndell, until at last he faced Radagon and the Elden Beast.
Throughout that time, he never revived at the Golden Grace again. Even when the last drops in his Flask were gone, even when his life hung by a thread, he refused to give up.
Something burned inside him. He wanted to prove something to someone.
I can take things seriously too. I can fulfill some heavy, magnificent destiny. I'm not a puppet for gods and the Order to toy with. I don't have to rely on the Golden Grace to defeat my enemies.
All you had to say was, "I don't want to die," and I would have killed every obstacle in your path. Screw the Order. Screw the demigods. I, Lu Mingfei, am not so much weaker than those things.
But when the journey ended, when the invincible Tarnished had finished everything and turned to look around, there was still no one there. The person he had wanted to prove himself to had long since been buried in the ashes of the Fire Giant's forge.
So when given a chance to start over, he truly cherished it. This was his chance to move forward again, no matter what lay ahead-dragons, gods, or the end of the world.
In this seemingly hopeless underwater Bronze City, the fighting spirit blazing from Lu Mingfei was almost too fierce to look at.
He held Red Skies horizontally before him and slowly brushed his left hand along the blade.
In the Lands Between, weapons without elemental energy could be enchanted to increase their lethality. Lu Mingfei often performed this gesture before a battle. Now, even without the ability to enchant his weapon, the motion alone could serve as a switch-a switch for his fighting presence.
As his fingertips left the sword's tip, all emotion vanished from Lu Mingfei's eyes. His cold gaze swept over the monster prophesied to destroy the world, searching for an opening.
The Dragon King's entire body was wrapped in a searing, fiery liquid: bronze melted by extreme heat, glowing brilliantly. Seemingly enraged by Lu Mingfei's gaze, he raised a hand. The lava-like blaze bloomed like a deadly flower, expanding in an instant to more than ten times its original size and illuminating the entire bronze hall as brightly as day.
For a moment, it was like a volcanic eruption. Countless streams of blazing, white-hot fire spread into a vast net, enveloping Lu Mingfei.
It wasn't merely a spray of flame. Sparks first flickered into existence in the moisture-laden air, then ignited violently, bursting outward.
Lu Mingfei had already begun to dodge when the Dragon King raised his hand, but he hadn't expected his opponent to trigger fiery explosions at a distance. The heat melted his diving suit. Yet its material withstood the test: it only split open in tears like those left by a wild animal's claws, rather than catching fire.
He silently checked his physical condition. His Golden Eyes showed no change, no panic, no pain, as though he were merely assessing how badly an object had been damaged and whether it was still usable.
Blood Rage was a peculiar skill. Not only had his body endured the heat, but the dark red burns on his exposed skin were slowly healing.
He turned his gaze back to the Dragon King, then suddenly crouched low, darting nimbly like a cheetah among the snake-faced human statues as he closed in. His best weapon was Red Skies. He needed to fight at close range.
Every footfall on the bronze floor blasted apart the calf-deep water. The violent impacts sent droplets flying high.
The Dragon King created jets of flame and explosions in rapid succession. Lu Mingfei sensed each one in advance and dodged, though he inevitably suffered burns in several places along the way.
Chapter 30: Fury
Facing the scorching flames, Lu Mingfei gripped Red Skies in both hands and reached the Dragon King. Unable to make out his opponent's body beneath the fire, he faced those golden eyes, bright as the blazing sun, stepped forward into a lunge, and drove a thrust toward where the heart might be.
As Red Skies approached the Dragon King's body, its blade suddenly met tremendous resistance, ringing with the sound of metal striking metal.
The shrill screech set teeth on edge. It was as though Lu Mingfei had struck not a living creature, but an enormous, solid bell.
Though humanoid, the Dragon King was covered in tightly packed dragon scales. Interlocked, those scales were harder than the blades of alchemical swords.
Lu Mingfei noticed this immediately. If a sword couldn't break through his enemy's body and defenses, then he could only make up for its lack of killing power through impact! He shifted into footwork that traced an arc around his enemy, requiring constant changes in posture and force as he redirected his momentum to keep his acceleration tangent to the curve.
In combat, the effect was almost ghostlike. He moved to the Dragon King's side and delivered five cuts in an instant: diagonal slashes from four directions, followed by a final horizontal sweep.
The five deafening collisions joined into one sound, no longer grating, but almost clear and airy, like a wooden stick striking a singing bowl hard.
The combat technique was meant to inflict wounds in several places through consecutive attacks, but Lu Mingfei directed every cut at the same point.
Some kind of field surrounding the Dragon King, along with those incandescent streams of bronze, coated Red Skies in a layer of glowing red lava. It was impossible to tell whether fire clung to the blade or the blade itself had begun to melt.
Lu Mingfei's sword hand sizzled against the scorching hilt. It also trembled from the recoil of his consecutive full-strength strikes.
He had no choice but to retreat.
The Dragon King let out a furious roar.
Lu Mingfei knew that his stacked attacks had broken through the Dragon King's defenses, at one particular point on his left arm.
"That's my brother's sword..."
For the first time, Lu Mingfei heard the Dragon King's voice. It sounded distant and elusive, like a cold sigh amid heavy snow on a wasteland.
As the Dragon King's words faded, a brilliant white light appeared in the bronze hall. It did not simply ignite; it poured in from above, below, and every direction, enveloping everything.