Chapter 184: Giving Godrick a familial wallop!

Under a gloomy sky, amidst the bleak and withered grass, patches of tombstones stood in a chaotic jumble, like thickets of shrubs.

Some had already collapsed, while others had not yet been weathered much, their edges still sharp.

But the vast majority appeared old and dilapidated.

A few black, lifeless pieces of rotten wood were surrounded by the tombstones.

Looking at this, no one would think it was a place where a king should be.

But the truth was that Godrick’s courtyard was exactly like this, resembling a macabre mass grave.

The deformed and hideous king wore a dull golden cloak, and the corpse of a Dragonling was impaled upon an iron stake.

Godrick closed his eyes. He heard the carrion crows perched on the dead wood, staring at the Dragonling’s corpse and letting out covetous caws.

“Mm, mm.” The king used his twisted fingers to stroke the weathered edges of one tombstone after another, as if he took the crows’ cries for hymns of submission.

He wandered through the graveyard, muttering to himself somewhat crazily, “Noble knights under Godrick’s command…”

He stopped mid-sentence and frowned, as if feeling these words shouldn’t be spoken at this moment.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke again, addressing the countless graves: “People say the legitimate line is the main branch, and beneath it are the side branches. The main branch at the foot of the Erdtree is the rightful ruler.”

“The abandoned Omen King is beyond reach. The immature, deformed siblings can only sigh in despair.”

“We are the Golden People, the legitimate people. Even if the land is barren and dark clouds loom…”

“…look up, and the great tree is still as lush as ever.”

He paused after finishing, then whispered to himself, “I say it like this… and then…”

“Noble knights under Godrick’s command,”

“One day we shall return home. The grace shall guide us, guiding us back to our homeland at the foot of the Erdtree.”

He still had his eyes closed, completely immersed in his own delusion.

And this delusion was not without cause; he held his head high, standing before the Dragonling’s corpse.

“O dragon, fellow descendant, your power is beyond doubt.” Like stroking a treasure, Godrick caressed the lifeless, drooping head of the Dragonling.

Godrick savored the feeling of something called hope rising in his heart.

“Your power will surely push me to even greater heights.”

Already an old and twisted king, Godrick pursued power with a madness, for weakness was the original sin.

Suddenly, he lowered his hand, sensing an unusual presence behind him.

“Oh?”

Godrick turned his head; the girl’s body appeared so small and delicate before him.

Godrick recognized her as a Tarnished.

‘What are the Guard doing?’ That was the first thought that popped into his head when he saw her.

He didn’t understand why a Tarnished would appear before him without warning, having bypassed layers of Guard.

Mia also looked at Godrick, who stood in the graveyard.

His body had become exceptionally twisted due to the secret art of Grafting.

A thin, white-haired head sat absurdly atop a massive torso.

Mia knew very well what kind of body lay beneath Godrick’s voluminous robes.

She could also feel the connection to the Erdtree bloodline emanating from Godrick’s body.

But compared to Morgott, the grace upon Godrick was like silk fluttering in the air—ethereal and thin.

Mia always felt there was something strange about this.

Godrick was her junior, yet he had such an aged appearance.

She had accepted her identity in this life, or rather, her true identity.

Even if, in her memories, she was just a girl born on Earth.

But Mia was someone who lived in the present.

She only cared about whether what she was currently experiencing was something she personally felt, experienced, and thought.

So, she was now Godwyn’s sister and Godrick’s aunt. The blood connection existed; when Mia looked at Godrick, she saw a child of ill-fated destiny.

Although this child looked quite old.

“Godrick,” Mia sighed.

But there was indeed a gap in information between the two.

Mia’s pitying voice only made Godrick frown.

“Hmph.” Godrick looked at her with a grim expression.

He clearly wasn’t as sensitive as Morgott, unable to sense the golden power within Mia at first glance.

“A mere Tarnished, yet you have quite the arrogance.”

Godrick’s cloak fell away. Wearing tattered robes, he revealed a deformed body stitched together from countless twisted limbs and pieces of flesh.

It was a horrific appearance that would have a place in any horror movie.

Just a glance felt like a massive blow to one’s sanity.

Godrick gripped a heavy greataxe.

“Kneel!”

The heavy axe slammed into the ground like a sledgehammer; even at the courtyard entrance, Mia could feel a gust of wind.

“I am the Golden Lord!”

An expected development.

Godrick took a combat stance, the massive and deformed king striding toward Mia.

Those hideous, stiff limbs made him look like a piece of pale, rotten wood.

Mia pursed her lips.

Pruning a crooked little tree was only right.

Before that, she didn’t want to say too much.

The best way to reason with someone is to beat them into the ground first.

Gripping his greataxe, Godrick walked toward the Tarnished who dared to challenge him.

He didn’t think the person before him was any different from previous sacrifices.

Before Grafting the dragon’s limb, he would use this reckless Tarnished as a blood sacrifice for the ritual.

Mia cast a Glintstone Pebble.

As a probe before the battle truly began, the Glintstone Pebble flew toward Godrick.

The latter didn’t dodge; he swung his axe, shattering the projectile mid-air.

Mia kept a close eye on Godrick’s movements.

His choice to shatter the glintstone was no different from Morgott’s.

But in terms of both fluidity and speed, Godrick was far more sluggish than Morgott.

Godrick clearly wasn’t content to just be attacked by Mia’s magic; he spun his axe, conjuring a storm.

Although Godrick was a descendant of the Golden Order, he was also the ruler of Stormveil.

And this castle was famous throughout the world for its storms.

To gain power, Godrick didn’t care about heresy.

A swirling vortex swept across the ground toward Mia, the gale condensed into an impact like a straight punch.

The wind, twisting the air, howled as Mia raised a barrier before her.

After the collision, she only felt a gust of wind that ruffled her hair pass by, vanishing in an instant.

Godrick unleashed another storm toward Mia, and with his movements, a field of wind enveloped his body.

The crows cawed, flapping their wings in alarm as they flew away.

Weeds and gravel were swept up.

This time, Mia’s Glintstone Pebble met the wind gust head-on, the spinning pebble colliding with the equally swirling gale.

The wind gust stripped away the surface of the Glintstone Pebble, and shimmering glintstone dust scattered like fireworks.

The strength of the wind gust was completely depleted, but the glintstone continued to fly toward Godrick.

Godrick showed none of the elegance of royalty; his twisted, centipede-like body rolled across the ground to dodge the incoming Glintstone Pebble.

Mia had already made her judgment.

Godrick was like a beast, staying low to the ground. The limbs on his body, reminiscent of swaying sea anemones, writhed constantly as he rolled toward Mia.

His eyes were full of ruthlessness. From below the steps where Mia stood, Godrick suddenly leapt upward.

The massive, twisted figure hung in the air, raising his heavy greataxe and bringing it down upon her with tremendous force.

Masonry shattered, and a booming sound echoed through the courtyard as Godrick crashed to the ground. Dust dispersed in the wind, but there was no sign of Mia before him.

A massive surge of magical power emerged from behind Godrick. Mia stood in the center of the courtyard, with a large, bright Erdtree Sigil as her backdrop.

She wanted to end this quickly.