20 Burning

"An Elden Lord."

Lancer experienced a feeling of apprehension. Not because he was truly afraid or anything. The feeling felt... like a primal reaction.

He shrugged off the feeling, his eyes were focused on Zieg. The world suddenly disappeared, a reality marble?

Zieg stood there, shirt torn. Elden rings on his back and eyes. He stared at his hand and flexed his fingers in awe.

He could feel it, deep within his body.

Power.

He turned his eyes towards the blue spearman. Obviously he was waiting for him to make the first move.

Buckling his knees slightly, he moved.

He was fast, so fast that Lancer lost track of him.

"Hm?" Zieg blinked his eyes in confusion.

Lancer quickly turned around to see him about 10 meters away from him.

'That would have been embarrassing' Zieg thought to himself. He had overshot his jump and ended up much further than he was planning to move. He nearly tripped because of how fast he was going.

*Splash sfx* He turned to the sound and saw Lancer in the air.

Blood red energy erupted from his spear. "GAE-" Lancer's muscles bulged out as he kept his eyes on his opponent. "BOLG!" The red spear was released, like a falling red star. It descended straight towards the Elden Lord.

Zieg didn't move, he just kept staring at the approaching spear in mild surprise. What he was surprised about, only he knew.

*BOOM sfx* A massive explosion followed. The spear hit it's mark. For whatever reason, Zieg didn't retaliate.

Cu Chulainn landed on the ground and watched the area of impact carefully. He had felt the attack connected, but it seemed... too easy.

"What the hell!?" His eyes widened. The view cleared up and revealed Zieg, holding the red spear in his hands. "He caught it!?" It was inches away from piercing him, yet he held it firmly in his grip.

"Incredible..." Zieg whispered in astonishment. The reason he didn't bother to dodge or defend against it was because he didn't feel much danger from the attack.

Usually his instincts would kick in and warn him if something were about to truly injure or fatally wound him. But he just didn't feel anything from Lancer's attack. Which was why he just caught the spear.

He let go of the spear, allowing it to fly back into Lancer's hands. "Well, this is a first." Zieg continued to examine himself. He just felt... invincible.

Zieg disappeared from Lancer's view again. "Ah..." He looked down to his chest. Zieg's hand had pierced straight through his heart. "Damn... I really ran into a wall this time..." He chuckled before disappearing.

∞

I stepped back into reality. I could still feel the power of an Elden Lord coursing through me. "It didn't end?" I muttered out loud.

I still felt invincible, the Elden Ring still on my visage.

I turned my gaze towards the distance. Saber seems to be doing fine against Gilgamesh. Bringing my attention back towards the church, I could sense Kirei and Rin battling in there. She was losing.

With a single thrust of my spear, Kirei's legs were removed from him. She should be fine now.

Since I'm still invincible I might as well wrap this up. Looking to the stars, I calculated my position and the Matou's estate.

My form vanished and I found myself inside a basement in front of an old man.

"Who!?" Zouken obviously didn't anticipate my arrival. Granted I broke straight through his bounded field in an instant with brute force.

"I see Medusa has escaped with Sakura." I hummed out loud. Before this, I had used the Rune of the Unborn to sort of... give Sakura another body. It was a gamble and surprisingly it worked. I was afraid she was going to end up a vegetable, but thankfully it worked out fine.

"So you're the scheming rat." I turned my attention back to the old man. "Let me give you a lesson, on why it isn't wise to provoke something beyond your understanding." He growled. He was probably annoyed with everything I've done behind the scenes.

"Heh, beyond my understanding? My eyes understand everything, Zouken." With a single punch, he exploded. I knew that wouldn't be enough to kill him. I could sense the squirming bugs around the area.

I disappeared and reappeared midair above of the house. A four sided barrier was erected around the perimeter.

"What!?" I could tell he was surprised, this is what I've had Serenity work on during these days. A four sided carian wall to seal in the area. None of his bugs will escape.

I tapped my spear downwards. "Gae bolg alternative." Calling out the name of the attack. Thousands of blue spears rained down on the compound.

∞

"Is that all you have, archer?" Saber taunted, sending the King of Heroes outside the castle.

Hundreds of golden portals surrounded the blue saber in response. An explosion followed on impact.

"What!?" Gilgamesh exclaimed in surprise as Artoria had appeared in front of him in a single mana burst.

With a swing of her golden sword, he had lost an arm.

Gilgamesh clicked his tongue in annoyance. The chains of heaven catching Saber by the leg as he jumped away.

"Saber! You may be stronger than me at this moment, but you will still fall to my sword!" Gilgamesh exclaimed, removing his ultimate weapon from his arsenal. He felt that he had no choice but to use EA and finish it. With Saber's current strength, she was definitely worth using it on.

*ROAR sfx* The blonde King of Heroes widened his eyes in surprise at the sight of a large dark figure. "Berserker!?" was his last words, before his body was bisected from head to toe.

The berserker roared out in victory.

"It's over." Saber exhaled a breath of relief.

∞

"Hah, you really are difficult to kill." I blinked in surprise. Seriously I've killed thousands of bugs now, and this guy is still alive.

"But it's over now, Zouken." He only had a few bugs left. I stared at the form of the old man, it was his last main body.

"You...bastard." He growled, shakily glaring at me.

"Yeah, I guess I am. Now you'll die to this bastard." I prepared to finish him off. But then I felt it.

The Elden Ring's power vanished from my body. I unceremoniously dropped to the ground.

I can't move. What the fuck?

I found myself on my back. Incapable of moving anything besides my eyes. "W-what?" I struggled to speak. It hurt, holy shit the pain.

Pain began to flood my body from head to toe.

It took me just a moment to realize that I was experiencing some sort of drawback for using an Elden Lord's strength.

"Hahahahaahahaha!" Zouken's evil cackle brought me out of it for a moment. "You were so close, just a bit more and you would have finished me!" He sneered at me, as I glared at him from my prone form.

I quickly assessed my situation. My body was incapable of moving, I felt like I had pulled every single possible muscle in my body, but I still had energy from the Primeval current. The only issue is, my body can't handle the strain of any of my stronger summons at the moment. I could hold him off with weaker summons but the question is, can my body handle the strain in it's current condition?

"Normally I wouldn't let you die easily after what you've done. But from my experience, someone like you is too dangerous to be left alive." Zouken stated, he was preparing to quickly finish me off.

"After you die, your body will be used as nourishment." I watched him remove some sort of blade from his sleeves. Ah shit, does he know I have magic resistance? I'm about to get murdered by an old man with a knife. This is probably one of the most pathetic ways i've ever died before.

I turned my gaze back to the night sky helplessly. Of all the ways to die, why did it have to be to him?

"Ah..." My eyes locked onto it again. To The Great Old One who's been bored enough to watch me for some reason.

My eyes began to feel like they were searing again.

∞

Zouken moved closer to the unmoving form of the white haired magus. His legs were destroyed, so he was forced to crawl over to him. To think that there would be a day where he was forced to disgracefully crawl towards a first generation brat.

Zouken noticed that he wasn't looking at him anymore, his eyes were somewhere else. Obviously he's given up and accepted his fate.

"Die." Finally reaching the boy, he raised his knife to the air.

However he halted at the sight of the boy's eyes. They looked as if they contained two blue suns in them. He sensed a sort of primal feeling, that told him to escape!

*CRACK sfx* Zieg's neck seemed to crack, causing it moved in an unnatural angle. His face was directly facing Zouken now.

The disturbing scene forced Zouken to freeze as Zieg began to speak in an otherworldly language. "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthugha Fomalhaut n'gha-ghaa naf'lthagn"

"Aaaahhh!" Zouken's unwilling screams of terror filled the courtyard. Blue flames engulfed the area and a burning one continued to watch from above.