Elden Lord of Cinders

Who was that?

Messmer blinked as Elizabeth suddenly popped her head out—he hadn't even noticed she was there before.

"Just someone who enjoys watching the show."

Seeing his confusion, Lloyd offered a brief explanation before glancing over at Elizabeth.

"We're probably done fighting. Even if not, there's barely any health left—just a hit or two at most."

"Oh, then I'll go look somewhere else."

With that, Elizabeth vanished.

Messmer: "..."

What was her deal?

Still, thanks to her sudden interruption, the awkward tension in the air finally began to ease.

Messmer retracted his pike. Though he wasn't particularly fond of the Graceless Ones, he had to admit—at least for now—they were his only way into the Lands Between.

And if they were spirit bodies… maybe it didn't technically count as violating his mother's rules?

That was how Messmer rationalized it.

As for the Graceless Ones themselves, despite his mother's decree, he wasn't exactly fanatical about the issue.

After all, one of his most trusted and close old generals was an Albinauric, which at least proved he could accept Graceless Ones under certain circumstances.

Of course, "accept" didn't mean just anyone could qualify.

Like, say, a Graceless One who locked himself in a room in a depressive haze, killed his soldiers first, stole his stuff, then barged into his bedroom with their mother's mark shouting, "I'm your father!"—yeah, that kind definitely didn't qualify.

Anyway, for now, he had no plans—and frankly, no choice—but to stop fighting Lloyd.

After confirming both sides had ceased hostilities, Melina walked over...

And the three of them stared at each other in silence.

Melina, as usual, wasn't much of a talker to begin with. And now, for some reason, she bristled with thorns of rejection, making her even harder to approach.

Messmer, despite being her brother and technically the commander of an army, didn't have the best communication skills himself—thanks to a host of other reasons.

Especially now, after recalling what Melina had said earlier. As someone who couldn't go three sentences without invoking "Mother," he had gotten angry and accused her of betrayal.

But once he calmed down and thought it through, it became clear—if anything, Melina was even less likely than him to betray their mother.

And now that she was in spirit form, obviously something terrible had happened...

He didn't dare ask.

It wasn't until he was standing here, face to face with her, that Messmer realized—he wasn't ready to face the answer.

Maybe even his earlier fight with Lloyd had been a subconscious way of running away.

He'd tried to bury his thoughts by throwing himself fully into the battle.

But now...

"Melina."

Messmer opened his mouth, his voice hesitant.

"Mother, she..."

He didn't finish.

Melina was silent for a moment.

"You should go back, brother."

She looked up at him, her expression stern.

"You shouldn't be in the Lands Between. You know what that means."

"But earlier you said that Mother, she..."

His voice trailed off. Messmer's lips moved, but he couldn't bring himself to speak the rest. He refused to accept it.

Meanwhile, watching the two siblings talk in riddles, Lloyd blinked, then suddenly had a realization.

"Hey, can I ask something?"

He looked at the pair and asked,

"When you said 'Mother' just now, you meant Marika, right?"

Messmer: "?"

What kind of question is that?

Worried that if she didn't answer, Lloyd might blurt out something even more outrageous, Melina hesitated, then decided to confirm it.

"It's Marika."

"Oh, Marika..."

Lloyd nodded, eyeing the pair in front of him with a thoughtful look.

"So, that means you two are Demigods too?"

"Yes."

"Then if you're Demigods, how come I never heard of you during the Shattering?"

Lloyd looked puzzled.

And not just the Shattering—thinking back, from Kalé to Old Margit, then to Sellen and Ranni, he'd heard plenty about the Demigods along the way, but never once about these two.

Could they be those so-called Grace-Given monarchs who vanished from the Royal Capital? But that didn't seem right either.

He remembered talking to Old Margit, who had clearly mentioned having a friend... someone who actually knew the Grace-Given. That basically ruled out any connection to the two standing before him.

But someone else looked even more confused.

"The Shattering? What is that?"

Messmer furrowed his brows after hearing Lloyd, then glanced around. His expression grew more bewildered.

He had been so focused on fighting Lloyd, and afterward on his mother, that he hadn't noticed his surroundings at all. It wasn't until Lloyd's comment distracted him that he realized something was off.

"Where are we? Is this still within the Lands Between? Why does it feel so... strange?"

He definitely didn't recall any place in the Lands Between looking like this.

Melina didn't immediately answer. She fell silent.

Because she honestly didn't know how to explain it to her brother.

Unlike the other Demigods—even Morgott and Mohg, who had started deep in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds—at least they had ways to learn bits and pieces about the outside world.

But Messmer... ever since his territory had been physically cut off from the Lands Between one day, all outside information had basically stopped.

Forget the Shattering. Judging by his reactions and what he'd said, he probably didn't even know about the Tarnished.

But right then...

"You don't know about the Shattering?"

Just as Melina was trying to figure out how to explain, an excited voice chimed in.

She turned and saw Lloyd's eyes light up. Immediately, a sense of dread crept over her.

And the next second, that dread came true.

"It's fine if you don't know. I can tell you all about it!"

What goes around comes around. After all those times others had explained things to him, Lloyd finally had the chance to be the one doing the explaining. It felt like all his effort and learning had finally paid off.

Across from him, Messmer didn't see anything wrong with this.

Sure, Lloyd was a Graceless One, but now that he thought about it, anyone so close to Melina was probably on their mother's side anyway.

And as for not having Grace? He still had an old platinum-ranked general on his side. With how charismatic their mother was, wasn't it perfectly normal to have four or so ungraced followers?

So he nodded and agreed to let Lloyd explain.

Melina opened her mouth, as if wanting to say something, but seeing Messmer nod, she gave up and held back.

Fine. Let Lloyd stall him a bit.

It gave her time to gather her thoughts and figure out how to explain the situation to Messmer properly.

Then...

...

Some time later.

Messmer became one of the Graceless Ones.

Not in the literal sense of lacking Grace—but in the way the light vanished from his eyes.

Lloyd's rambling alone had already been an abstract kind of mental assault, but what followed from Melina made even that feel merciful by comparison.

The origin of the Tarnished, the conspiracy behind the Night of Black Knives, the shattering of the Elden Ring, the war that followed, and the current state of the Lands Between...

Even though Melina only gave him the general outline and tried to soften the blows with the most tactful wording possible...

Well, her "tact" could only be described as... lacking.

First, Lloyd hit him with an incomprehensible barrage of terms like company hierarchy and staffing. Before Messmer could even process that, just as he was beginning to catch his breath, Melina stepped in wielding a blade called "truth" and dealt a series of brutal critical hits.

"What on earth happened in the Lands Between while I was gone...?"

Messmer covered his face with one hand, his head throbbing faintly.

Even the little serpent beside him was coiling around in confusion, almost tangling itself into a knot.

He'd considered the possibility that Melina was lying to him—but really, what was the point of deceiving someone locked away in the secluded Land of Shadow, someone with no way to escape? Even if she was making things up, she'd need to base her lies on some version of reality.

Even if ninety percent of what she said was false, the remaining ten percent was already disturbing enough to be true.

Still, none of that was the main source of Messmer's headache.

After being stabbed by Melina, the worst damage hadn't come from the blade itself—but from the blood loss once the wounds had piled up. Or rather, from what could be inferred behind it all.

His mother, Marika—the gentle Mother Goddess—was most likely truly dead.

Otherwise, if she were still alive, there was no way she would have let the Lands Between fall into such ruin.

And once he came to that realization, Messmer was left adrift.

What was he supposed to do now?

With the Lands Between in this state, did anything he was doing even matter anymore?

And as for the state of things in the Lands Between—even if he could escape the isolation of the Land of Shadow, his fate wouldn't be much better than that of the Frenzied Flame.

The Essence of the Serpent—the truth hidden deep within his pupils—was something even his most loyal followers had rebelled against once they learned of it.

To the followers of the Golden Order, a traitorous serpent was even more loathed than the Frenzied Flame.

Messmer began to regret everything.

Regret coming here.

Regret not striking when he had the chance.

Regret ever speaking to those two.

For the first time in his life, he longed for failure—longed for death.

At least if he died and came back again, he could retreat into his little bedroom, clutching some faint hope, and pray before his mother's image.

But now...

"Just... give me a moment to calm down."

Seeing his expression, Melina sighed softly and said nothing more.

Lloyd, after a moment's thought, pulled out a handful of shrimp.

"Want some? Spicy. Pretty good."

Messmer hesitated, then reached out and took it.

"...Thanks."

After the golden wood bristling with rejection, a brooding piece of shadow wood joined him in silence.

And then, the exploration began.

Lost in his own misery, Messmer didn't pay much attention to Lloyd at first.

But gradually, as the number of corpses piled up at the edge of his vision, he realized something was off...

"Um, Melina."

Watching Lloyd mow down everything in his path—from monsters to soldiers, even small animals—and still look thrilled while doing it, Messmer couldn't hold back anymore.

"Isn't your companion... a bit extreme?"

As Queen Marika's black-gloved enforcer in the Land of Shadow, tasked with grim duties like mass purges and executions, Messmer had always considered himself brutal enough. But compared to the man in front of him, he suddenly felt almost... gentle.

After all, even when he carried out purges, it was never by choice. It was his mother's will. And he always made sure to distinguish between targets.

He bore his guilt, and whenever possible, he tried to rescue persecuted kin. Even when hope was slim, he would still send people to try to heal them.

But Lloyd...

No mission. No objective. He simply killed wherever he went.

No words, no concern for sides—monster, soldier, civilian—if it moved, it died.

Even those not in his path—those far off, just quietly minding their own business—he'd go out of his way to investigate, then wipe out the entire camp.

And through it all, he wore that faint smile, making it painfully clear how much he enjoyed the slaughter.

Even when asked why, he just smiled and said, "Gotta enjoy the new toy, right?"

After hearing that, Messmer fell silent.

He was starting to suspect that Melina hadn't exactly lied to him before—but she had definitely left out a lot.

Maybe to spare his feelings.

Like this strange Graceless One in front of him—frankly, with strength and a mindset like that, he seemed better suited to work in the Land of Shadow than Messmer himself...

Then a sudden thought hit him.

Frowning at the silent Melina, he asked, "What exactly is your relationship with him?"

They'd been together last time, and they were together again now. And from the looks of it... well...

"Nothing special," Melina replied. "I agreed to help him fulfill the duties of a missing Finger Maiden. In return, he's taking me to the foot of the Erdtree. That's all."

"...Really?"

Messmer glanced around.

"But Caelid's the furthest place from the Erdtree, isn't it?"

Not in a straight-line sense—northern Caelid was bordered by sea. To reach the Erdtree, you'd have to loop all the way around from the west, basically crossing half the map. If they were heading for the Erdtree, they were going the wrong way entirely.

"Well..."

Melina was just about to explain when a small soul floated up near her lips.

She instinctively lowered her head, stuck out her tongue, scooped up the soul from her fingertip, and swallowed it—then froze.

"Wait—was that...?"

Watching the two of them so casually feeding each other souls, Messmer's expression grew complicated. Even the little serpent on his shoulder flicked out its tongue.

"It's fine. You don't have to explain."

"I get it."

...

[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]

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