Ethereal phantoms flickered through the air like ghosts, and every time they appeared, an invisible blade swept past.
The blades moved at terrifying speed, swift as moonlight, slicing through the throats of the Nox people in an instant.
Blood bloomed in midair like flowers opening in a nightmare.
Nolan lifted his head slightly and watched it all with cold indifference.
He could see the beautiful starry sky of the Underworld, but now that sky was veiled in a wash of crimson.
Exquisite sconces hung along the walls. Their usually gentle light now seemed harsh, reflecting the blood-red glow with an eerie brilliance.
More and more corpses littered the ground, all of them deep-gray-skinned Noxians. Their blood seemed to spread across the floor like a magnificent red carpet.
Nolan rode Torrent forward through the blood, while the tall assassins who had been at his side had all vanished.
A pitch-black world and a cramped, enclosed space. This was exactly the kind of battlefield assassins loved.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
A sudden clamor came from ahead. The heavily armored knights were clearing the way.
They carried massive shields, each covered in a layer of blue Magical Power, forming a defensive wall of Scholar's Shields.
Dense volleys of blue Dwelling Arrows hammered against that wall of Scholar's Shields, ringing out in sharp, crisp impacts.
Had these Ancestral Followers joined forces with the Nox? What could have made them abandon their stance of shunning civilization and keeping to themselves?
Nolan did not know the reason, and he had no time to dwell on the thoughts of those Nature Folk. He simply led his troops in a headlong charge through the city.
"Is it over there?" Nolan asked.
Beside him stood several knights who had just fought their way out of the city. They were supposed to return to the surface and request reinforcements from the army's commander, Eleonora.
But when they reached the spiral road, they unexpectedly found a large force flying their own banner.
The knights had been so astonished they could hardly close their mouths. Not only had they seen the Fire Knights, but, to their disbelief, they had also beheld the legendary Lord himself.
First came awe and trepidation. Then overwhelming joy.
"Yes. The northwestern sector is the main battlefield," the knights answered with repeated nods, unable to hide the excitement in their voices.
Before they had even finished speaking, a thunderous boom erupted, and Nolan vanished from where he stood.
The shockwave from his movement exploded across the street, whipping up a violent gale that lifted the blood-stained water high into the air like a crimson wave.
Then, in the next instant, dozens of Dwelling Arrows streaked across the sky like streams of light.
Nolan moved with blinding speed. The purple Discus of Light knocked the arrows aside as he charged straight out of the city, and only in the boundless Darkness did Torrent finally slow his pace.
Riding Torrent beneath the starry sky, Nolan looked down over the restless city.
The city truly lived up to the name "Eternal." In scale, it was not much smaller than Stormveil Castle.
Torrent's four hooves raced like lightning. With each step, purple ripples stirred in midair, stretching on and on like a beautiful, mysterious river flowing through the void.
Nolan gazed at the city, and the people in the city gazed back at Nolan.
Then a golden downpour fell from the sky where Nolan stood. The golden raindrops scattered downward like the tears of gods.
They fell with astonishing speed, as if driven by some immense force.
The dense golden rain covered a vast stretch of the surrounding city district, as though draping the entire city in a veil of gold.
When the raindrops pierced through the bodies of the Noxians and Ancestral Followers, Alexia and Olivia, trapped inside the prison wagon, could not help but turn pale with terror.
They suddenly remembered something. On the journey here, everyone had been saying that this Lord had killed the Demigod Radahn.
Although they had no clear idea how powerful a Demigod truly was, they had witnessed Radahn shatter the stars with their own eyes, and they knew that Radahn had later become the ruler of the land where they had been sealed.
That alone was enough to show how terrifying Radahn's strength was. And Nolan, who had defeated him, could only be even stronger, and even more frightening.
Nolan stood in silence like a statue, his gaze passing through the city's noise and chaos to settle on this prison that had confined countless people for a thousand years.
Under his gaze, the city seemed to collapse little by little, turning into a field of ruins.
When a sovereign struck, the result was always devastating. Malenia's slashes could part the sea, and Radahn's power of the stars could split the earth apart.
And now, Nolan's single strike had reduced the southeastern side of Nokron to a collapsed ruin.
Cries of agony filled the city. Countless Grayfolk and Minotaurs were buried beneath falling buildings, their fates unknown.
The commotion was so tremendous that it even startled those fighting on the battlefield far to the northwest.
Blaidd swung his Claymore against a Dragonkin Soldier, then drove it back with a sudden burst of strength and knocked it to the ground. But before he could catch his breath, a massive Dragon Halberd came thrusting down at him.
With no other choice, Blaidd gave up pursuing his enemy and quickly dodged aside.
At the same time, his ears twitched slightly. He seemed to hear a violent rumble from afar. He could not help looking back, only to see golden streams of light sweeping across the sky like shooting stars.
"That guy's here? Still making an entrance as flashy as ever," Blaidd muttered.
Aside from his widely known title, The Golden, Nolan had in fact gained many other nicknames throughout the Lands Between.
The most famous among them was "the Sun King." The name came from that dazzling golden thunderbolt, so bright that no one could look straight at it.
Although people in the Lands Between mostly judged the time by the changing light and shadow of the Erdtree, one could still see the sun by looking up at the sky during the day.
It was just that, to the people of the Lands Between, the sun seemed far too small compared with the Erdtree and the moon, so its presence was easy to overlook.
Even so, people still knew that the brightness and warmth of daytime came from that distant sun.
The farther one was from the Erdtree, the more clearly one could feel the sun's presence.
And compared to the Royal Capital of Leyndell, both Limgrave and Caelid were undoubtedly remote regions.
"Long live the King! Victory is ours!!"
The soldiers also recognized the source of that power, and their morale surged even higher. The Fire Knights who had joined the Church of the Flame began reciting their prayers with even greater devotion.
"What a bunch of lunatics. He isn't even here yet, and they're already shouting their heads off," Blaidd said, curling his lip at the sight, his expression full of impatience and utter incomprehension.
He really could not understand why the Firelink Army was so fanatical. Just sensing that power was enough to make them act like madmen who had lost all reason.
Of course, he knew that Order, runes, food, and dreams were the reasons behind the soldiers' frenzy. That was exactly why he found it so hard to understand.
How could any of those things be great enough to warrant staking one's life on a battle cry?
A werewolf who lived for his mission could not understand.
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