A Qualified Organizer
Late at night, in the Roundtable Hold.
Warm firelight flickered slowly against the ancient stone walls, bathing the entire building in a dim, solemn glow.
No one could say how long the hold had stood.
Leon sat at the head of the table, his hands folded beneath his chin. Firelight traced a sharply defined outline across his calm profile.
After once again softly reciting a prayer directed at Ranni and receiving no answer, he sighed silently.
Ever since the Roundtable Hold had arrived here, he had tried to contact Ranni every night, but the result remained the same: silence.
It was not a good sign, but trapped in this world, there was little he could do.
His gaze fell on the center of the hold, and he turned to look at the enormous round wooden table.
There, the Greater Grace burned in silence.
The radiance of the Order became countless tiny golden motes, continually emerging from the void and flowing together into a strange, asymmetrical pattern that looped perfectly.
This was the source of all Grace-the Elden Ring.
The pattern, formed from several Great Runes of different shapes, was the cornerstone of a world's operation.
It was not merely a symbol or emblem, but a collection of concepts that defined the physical and metaphysical laws of the entire world of the Lands Between.
If the Lands Between were likened to a vast and intricate system, then the Elden Ring was its source code.
It defined the fundamental laws governing all things: the strength of gravity, the cycle of life, the forms in which magic existed, and the order and boundaries of death.
Everything, without exception, operated under the laws established by the Elden Ring.
It was also the source of Leon's power.
But this was only a projection. The Elden Ring itself remained within the trapped soul, inside the body in Tingen City.
Fortunately, as the original, he could still summon the Elden Ring's projection and control it remotely.
This also indirectly indicated that the Roundtable Hold was not far from this world.
Leon's fingertip twitched, and a pitch-black ring slowly separated from it and drifted before him.
Remarkably, despite losing a piece, the Elden Ring did not stop functioning. Its flowing radiance paused for only an instant before continuing.
It was like an extra attachment.
For once, in this system of rules so rigorous as to be nearly perfect, there had been no place for death.
The Golden Order had once deeply feared "death." It was the one power that could reduce even gods to nothingness, a variable no eternal order could accommodate.
Thus, the Rune of Death had been removed from the Elden Ring and sealed away in a dark place unknown to anyone.
From then on, the living beings of the Lands Between had enjoyed long lives, even a kind of immortality, but had also forever lost the right to "truly die."
The world created by the Golden Order was a utopia without death, but also a prison without an exit.
It was Leon, back when he was still a Tarnished, who had traveled across the entire Lands Between and repaired the broken Elden Ring before incorporating the Rune of Death into it.
This was a law that Leon alone had mastered completely, and the only authority he considered suitable for use on its own-and the most suitable one at that.
But this Destined Death was not entirely complete. A remaining sliver of Destined Death was held by someone Leon did not wish to mention.
Perhaps that was where the problem lay as well.
But when Azik unexpectedly lost control, Leon could not have approached him under normal circumstances.
To get close, he needed absolute power.
But forcibly releasing the power of Destined Death would also inevitably inflict tremendous damage on this body in an instant.
It might even directly impose "death" on him, a consequence he certainly could not bear.
That amounted to a very tedious vicious cycle.
But Leon, accustomed to pushing his abilities to the limit, had been considering how to awaken Azik.
He had thought of a brilliant solution: since he could use the Law of Regression to interrupt Azik's "awakening" state,
he could also use it to simultaneously regress the continuously accumulating effects of Destined Death.
That would leave only the most basic, purely physical damage, which was not covered by Regression.
In the terminology he had used when playing games on Earth, that was interrupting a cast bar.
Pulling it off required an exceptionally good sense of timing.
Fortunately, Leon had done it almost perfectly, and the Tarnished's powerful regenerative constitution had allowed him to recover completely in a short time.
He had thought it was another close call with no real harm done, but the unexpected always arrived first.
Just as he returned to Daffodil Street and invited Klein over,
he suddenly detected Destined Death that had not been extinguished within this body.
This was not the stripping away of life normally caused by being burned by Destined Death.
It was still under Leon's control and had not gone out of control, but he could not fully withdraw it. It was as though it had taken root deep within this body: whenever he withdrew a portion, another portion would flare up again.
What it burned was this body's life force. To avoid being affected, Leon needed to keep watch over it at all times and promptly control and eliminate it.
It felt to him like... a special kind of corruption.
Yet as pure death, it had no concept of corruption.
One was either alive or dead; he had never seen anyone half alive and half dead.
Even in the Lands Between, the two demigods directly harmed by Destined Death had been no exceptions: one's body had died completely, and the other's soul had died completely.
Something must have affected it. Firelight danced in Leon's eyes as he sank into thought.
The only thing he could think of was the power within Azik that could stir Destined Death.
But that brought him back to a gap in his knowledge. Leon, who knew little about this world to begin with, was quite at a loss for words.
At that, he recalled what Miss Spectator had said: "Sometimes Beyonder knowledge can only be obtained through certain special channels."
Most such channels were secret organizations whose members exchanged information.
Just because he did not understand it did not mean no one else did. Professional matters should be left to professionals.
Rather than going to the trouble of searching himself, it would be better to exchange for what he needed directly.
Tomorrow was Monday, the appointed day, and the perfect opportunity to begin trying to form an organization of his own.
Even if they did not know, he could have them help gather information through other channels.
But as a qualified organizer, Leon knew that if he wanted a horse to work, he had to feed it.
"I wonder if they accept gold pounds." Leon rubbed his chin, thinking that perhaps he could have Martha open a few more anonymous accounts at Backlund Bank.
After all, he could hardly go and conduct transactions face-to-face himself.
But on second thought, as Beyonders, they probably did not have much trouble making money either. Compared with money, they might be more interested in Beyonder items or knowledge.
As Leon thought, he took out the [Magician's Rune] and played with it in his hand.
As a main ingredient for Sequence 7, he had originally thought of giving it to Klein, but right now, it looked like the thing he had on hand most likely to appeal to them.
Oh, right. Leon suddenly raised his head, remembering something. Although his encounter with Azik this time seemed to have cost him more than it was worth,
it was not entirely without gain.
He crooked a finger at the Elden Ring again, and specks of pale light emerged from it.
They fell into the Greater Grace, then slowly condensed into a ring.
[Spirit Guide's Rune carved by the Lord of the Stars: made from the Beyonder Characteristic of a Sequence 6 Spirit Guide of the Corpse Collector Pathway.]
[Through the Tarnished Potion's ability, the abilities of that Sequence can be used for a short time.]
[It can also be used directly as a Potion's main ingredient.]