Chapter 250 The Underground World

The person who appeared was named Gowry.

He enjoyed a reputation as a sage in this region.

It was also he who had adopted Millicent and her four sisters, raising them to adulthood.

Indeed, there were four others born under the same circumstances as Millicent, all of whom were symbolic fragments split from Malenia.

The eldest sister, Mary, used a Cleanrot Knight's scythe and could release halos, representing the support of her comrades and her brother, Miquella.

The second sister, Maureen, used a Treespear, and her skill was the Sacred Order of golden order Fundamentalism, representing Malenia's loyalty to the golden order.

The third sister, Amy, dual-wielded Flowing Curved Swords but did not know the Flowing Curved Sword technique, representing Malenia's encounter with her master.

The youngest sister, Pollyanna, held the Blade of Calling but lacked Melina's golden flames, representing that Malenia possessed her own unique mission.

As for Millicent, she represented Malenia's noble personality traits such as courage, sincerity, and self-esteem.

However, except for Millicent, the other four sisters had already been corrupted by Gowry, completely embracing the scarlet power within them and becoming believers of the scarlet rot.

Gowry appeared to be a strange-looking old man, but in reality, he was a Kindred of Rot, and his true form was a Lesser Kindred of Rot.

His goal had always been singular: to have Malenia merge completely with the scarlet power, allowing the Scarlet Flower to bloom fully in The Lands Between, at which point the Valkyrie would become the Goddess of Rot.

Gowry was indeed close to achieving all of this.

He had successfully corrupted the four sisters, excluding Millicent.

As long as he could corrupt Millicent, who symbolized Malenia's self-esteem, the result of the blooming he anticipated would surely be reached.

Gowry just hadn't expected this step to be so difficult.

Even after exhausting all his methods, he couldn't make Millicent submit to the scarlet rot, and in the end, she even lost control completely.

If Millicent were to die, all his efforts would have been in vain.

Originally, Gowry had plenty of time and didn't need to be so urgent, but a few days ago, the stars were liberated and the sun reappeared, shining upon the land, and the power of the scarlet rot was eroded and suppressed under the sunlight.

If this continued, it wouldn't be long before the results of Malenia's last "blooming" would completely dissipate.

Gowry had no choice but to give it a desperate try.

He had the Kindred of Rot fully stimulate the scarlet power within Millicent to see if they could forcibly corrupt her.

The result could only be described as a failure.

Even though her body was already dominated by the power of rot, Millicent's will never submitted.

And even more unluckily, the out-of-control Millicent actually encountered Chen Nuo.

Others might not be able to tell, but how could Gowry not know?

The person before him was the sun walking upon the earth.

Every piece of land He walked upon echoed with the wails of the scarlet rot's demise.

Gowry originally wanted to hide and wait for a new opportunity, but Chen Nuo had no intention of letting him go.

If he allowed the Redmane Knights to wipe out the Kindred of Rot and believers here, then his plans and his life would be buried together.

Since things had come to this, Gowry had no choice but to fight for his life.

Accompanied by the revelation of Gowry's true form and a piercing incantation, Pest Threads emerged throughout the air, forming a giant web that draped down from the sky.

After an unknown number of years of cultivation and accumulation, Gowry had long ago turned this dilapidated town into his own holy land, burying his Pest Threads deep into the soil.

He had even discarded his original body, merging with the power of rot within the soil.

The one remaining on the surface was merely a false body formed from Pest Threads.

However, this massive display of incantation power was instantly incinerated by the signal fires raised by the Redmane Knights.

The elemental counter was too significant.

The self-union of Radagon and Marika, in a sense, symbolized "stagnation" and "decay," which was also why the scarlet rot could descend and break the seal of "flowing water" along with Malenia's birth.

Furthermore, the Erdtree's past continuous suppression of "fire" meant that not much power symbolizing flame remained in The Lands Between.

In this era, for the scarlet rot, it truly seemed as if it had the blessing of destiny.

Who would have thought that the sun would also be revived.

Compared to the endless cycle of "flowing water," the sun was the true natural enemy of the scarlet rot.

Gowry naturally understood this; he was merely trying to buy time for Malenia's four sisters to kill Chen Nuo.

If he didn't kill this walker of the sun, then even if the Goddess of Rot were born, it would be in vain.

Although turning to the dark side makes one stronger, no matter how much stronger the Valkyrie became, she was still ultimately just a demigod; it was still unknown if she could compare to General Starscourge.

"Nuo!"

Seeing the four sisters attacking, Millicent ignored the mental stimulation brought by her recovering memories and stood before Chen Nuo with her sword to protect him.

The strength of these four sisters was extraordinary; each was an existence that could be called a heroic legend.

After all, as fragments of Malenia, they had all inherited the power of the Valkyrie, not to mention they had also received the blessing of the scarlet rot.

Though they couldn't be counted as demigod-level beings, they all stood at the apex of mortality.

If these four joined forces, they could easily beat Godrick the Grafted until he was kneeling and licking their feet again.

Millicent alone was not enough to face the four sisters.

Millicent knew this well herself, yet she still stood at the very front without hesitation.

She had already recalled her adoptive father's betrayal and the fact that her sisters had fallen to corruption.

But Millicent, just like every time before, firmly chose to oppose the scarlet rot, even if it meant fighting her family.

Because she had always known what the right thing to do was.

"What, you're going to leave me out?"

Chen Nuo pressed a hand on Millicent's shoulder and stood by her side.

"...Though they are my sisters, they have now become incarnations of rot. You don't need to hold back."

Millicent was silent for a moment, then spoke with a firm tone.

The battle ended very quickly.

Although the four sisters all possessed extraordinary combat skills, their bodies had ultimately not transcended the mortal realm.

Furthermore, the power of rot residing within them instead became their most fatal weakness in Chen Nuo's eyes.

In the end, they all met the same fate of being consumed by flames.

Looking at her departed sisters, Millicent's expression was somber.

Before they were betrayed, they had lived a warm life together like a family.

For a long period, Gowry had indeed fulfilled the duties of a father, giving Millicent a rare paternal love in this rotten land.

But looking back now, all of that was just an illusion, meant only to make the final betrayal even more painful.

However, looking at Chen Nuo's figure, Millicent soon pulled herself together.

On the other side, the battle between the Redmane Knights and the Kindred of Rot was also coming to an end.

Gowry was hoisted up by the knights and thrown into the signal fire.

This was a long-standing tradition of the Redmane Knights; they would burn these Kindred of Rot to ashes to prevent the spread of corruption.

However, this alone could not kill this Kindred.

"Burn this land. Do not leave a single trace of scarlet, and do not let me see a single strand of pest thread."

Chen Nuo commanded.

The Redmane Knights struck their breastplates, responding solemnly.

Looking at it now, the birth of Millicent and her sisters was likely not an accident.

This was the scarlet rot intentionally dividing Malenia's power.

Because even after the golden needle was removed and she was heavily injured, that Valkyrie could still use the intent of flowing water and her own will to resist the erosion of rot.

Therefore, the scarlet rot simply split Malenia into five symbolic parts. After corrupting these individual symbols, it would have them return, thus completing the total corruption of the Valkyrie.

To undermine the Golden Dynasty, the scarlet rot had certainly put in a lot of effort.

However, in the end, it was Chen Nuo who wielded his hoe better.

Seeing the admiration and respect in the girl's eyes, Chen Nuo felt secretly proud.

The scarlet rot had not yet been completely cleared, but Chen Nuo's journey in the land of Caelid had to come to a temporary close.

Blaidd the Half-Wolf had confirmed that the path to the Eternal City, Nokron, had been opened.

Chen Nuo needed to go and fulfill his promise to Ranni.

Millicent did not go with him, choosing instead to remain in Caelid for the time being to continue clearing the scarlet rot alongside the Redmane Knights.

She harbored a heavy sense of guilt regarding the scarlet erosion of the Caelid region and wanted to use her actions to make up for the damage Malenia had caused to this land.

This sense of guilt was not without reason.

Millicent indeed had a close relationship with Malenia.

...

...

The star had fallen in the Limgrave region, not far from Fort Haight.

This was originally a corner of the Mistwood Ruins.

Now, an abyss had been smashed out by the falling star.

"The road ahead won't be easy. Follow me carefully."

Blaidd stood beside Chen Nuo and reminded him.

Then he saw Chen Nuo leap straight forward, jumping into the mist of the abyss.

"...What a madman!"

Blaidd couldn't help but curse under his breath.

In the end, he could only descend little by little along the broken rock walls.

Deep in the mist, there was a passage smashed out by the falling star, which was a ruptured dome of the Eternal City.

By passing through this ancient building, one could reach Nokron.

When Blaidd arrived, Chen Nuo had already been waiting for him for some time.

"We'll have to split up for the next part of the journey."

Blaidd spoke up.

The Eternal City of Nokron was too large. Trying to find a hidden weapon here was akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. They could only each divide up half the area to increase efficiency.

Chen Nuo nodded, agreeing to the proposal.

Blaidd soon disappeared from his field of vision.

"This false sky is quite brilliant."

Chen Nuo said, looking up, and Melina's response came from behind him.

Few people could imagine that beneath The Lands Between, there existed such a vast underground world.

Looking out, in this eternal and boundless false starry sky, there were other cities drifting.

In the winding rivers and the starry sky, they were like isolated islands.

This was also the place where civilization and life were first nurtured.

After pausing for a moment, Chen Nuo summoned Torrent and galloped toward the deepest part of Nokron.

Even though it was unknown how long ago it had been cast underground by the greater will, active individuals could still be seen here.

These beings, appearing like mummified corpses, were soldiers of the Fallen Hawk Legion, slaves who had been sent to explore the Eternal City in the past.

They were fine when they entered, but as it turned out, they couldn't get out.

Trapped for an unknown amount of time, they had become the half-dead, half-alive state they were in now.

These mummies posed no threat; their lifeless bodies couldn't even perform normal movements. They were like severely rusted machinery; even a slight bump would cause them to fall apart first.

As for the original inhabitants of Nokron, they had long since been annihilated under the punishment of the greater will.

However, their creations still wandered the city to this day.

That was a life form composed of fluid metal, which had survived through the ages and the cataclysm until now.

It looked like a lump of metallic Slime.

The silver metallic luster it emitted reflected the surrounding plants.

Clearly, a mysterious eroding power permeated this city, constantly changing the surrounding life forms and silverizing them.

Similar situations were manifest throughout The Lands Between.

Whether it was the evolution of the Erdtree or the scarletization of rot, it was all the erosion of a high-dimensional power, which could also be called an Order.

And the high-dimensional power eroding this land came precisely from the Black Moon, one of the three moons.

When the Black Moon shattered, a part of it fell into the underground river basin, nurturing a civilization—the Nox people, who were destroyed by the greater will for studying forbidden secrets.

The Nox people were one of the early civilizations of The Lands Between, contemporary with the era of the Ancient Dragons. They were famous for their scientific exploration and magical creations. Long before the era of the Erdtree arrived, they had begun to pursue the power of the stars.

Star-gazing and Glintstone Sorcery originated here.

Clearly, the struggle among Outer Gods for The Lands Between had begun long ago.

The Black Moon intended to promote the Nox people to create their own king and establish the Order of the Black Moon, and these Silver Tears composed of night dew were the choice of the Nox people.

These fluid metal life forms had immense potential and could simulate life to undergo iterative evolution; they indeed had the potential to become kings.

The Nox civilization did not only develop this path.

The existing Spirit-tuning system, which is the technology of materializing souls, also inherited the legacy of the Eternal City.

One only needs to compare it with the inscriptions on the Spirit Calling Bell to know.

Is this not the technological imprint from the Nox people?

As for an even earlier origin, it should probably come from the Ancestral Followers, a purely natural system of spirit calling.

These secrets are recorded in scattered bits in the academy's archives.

After all, those Glintstone Sorcerers can also be considered successors to the Nox people, having obtained some of their intellectual legacy.

It's just that in the end, the Dark Moon still failed.

And the Erdtree also absorbed considerable nourishment during this struggle, laying the foundation for the Golden Dynasty.

This is why the golden order does not accommodate the Albinaurics.

It is not hard to tell from the silver blood flowing from them that the Albinaurics were originally creations of the Nox people as well.

And the numenss, like Queen Marika, were also originally a branch of the Nox people, though for unknown reasons, they flowed out of The Lands Between.

The Carian Royal Family is the same.

It seems the relationship between the three moons has not always been harmonious; long ago, they also split and competed with each other.