"Who's there!?" Moongrum spun around in alarm. He hadn't expected another soul to be within the sealed Grand Library.
"Just a Tarnished passing through for the sights. Carry on—I'm perfectly happy watching from the sidelines," the Tarnished replied, leaning against a bookshelf. The starlit realm Ranni had conjured was breathtaking; it wasn't every day you got to see a sky like this.
"A Tarnished...?"
"You might want to focus on the Queen. Here comes the follow-up." The Tarnished gestured with his chin toward the spectral Rennala.
"Damn!" Moongrum turned back just as Rennala flicked her staff. Seven or eight massive Great Glintstone Shards spiraled into existence, homing in on the knight with a life of their own.
"Hahaha, she really is something!" The Tarnished chuckled. Even as an illusion, Rennala's power was clearly in the top tier of the Lands Between.
"Are you truly just here to watch!?" Moongrum shouted over his shoulder while rolling through a magical explosion.
"Hey, watch the volume! You're a Carian Knight, aren't you? Where's your etiquette?"
"I don't care why you're here, but understand this—this is the spectral memory of Queen Rennala. Unless she is defeated, neither of us is leaving this dreamscape!"
"Oh? So you're asking for a partnership?"
"You reached this library alone; you are clearly no weakling," Moongrum said, parrying a magical beam. "I am bound by my oath to protect the Queen, but I cannot reach her through this storm. I ask for your aid!"
"You Carians are decisive. I like that better than the pedants downstairs." The Tarnished pushed off the shelf. "Fine. I'll join the dance."
As the Tarnished stepped onto the mirrored water, the spectral Rennala sensed the new threat. She raised her staff, summoning a translucent spirit dragon and a pack of wolves to guard her.
"A dragon? Really?"
"The Queen formed alliances with many creatures of the Lands Between," Moongrum explained. "Caria has long stood with the dragons, the Albinaurics, and the Trolls."
The Tarnished nodded. A leader who didn't discriminate was a rare find. He looked at the one-armed knight and the unharmed Queen. "How about this... you stay back and catch your breath. With that arm, you're just a target."
"Do not insult me! A Carian Knight does not—" Moongrum was cut off as Rennala spun her staff, unleashing a barrage of glintstone stars directly at him.
"Why me!?" Moongrum yelled, diving for cover. "There are two of us now!"
"See what I mean? I have to spend half my energy making sure you don't die." The Tarnished blurred, appearing in front of Moongrum and shattering the incoming spells with a single sweep of his blade.
The Tarnished then leaped toward the spirit dragon, grabbing its wing and forcing it upward. He delivered a heavy strike to its underbelly, causing it to bank and breathe fire across the wolf pack below, clearing the board in seconds. Rennala's cold, intelligent eyes finally locked onto him.
She raised her staff, tracing a semi-circle in the air. A Comet Azur—a thick torrent of emerald energy—blasted toward the Tarnished.
"Time for a test," the Tarnished muttered. He held his warped "Gravity Hammer" blade forward. Instead of the emerald green of the Academy, a prismatic, starlit glow began to spiral around the weapon.
"Is that... Comet Azur? No, the color is wrong!" Moongrum watched in awe. It looked like the legendary sorcery, but it shimmered with the shifting colors of a true nebula.
The two beams collided. The starlit stream didn't just meet the Comet; it consumed it. The force of the impact tore through the spectral illusion, shattering the giant moon behind Rennala.
"The Full Moon... she broke it into a New Moon..." Moongrum whispered.
"Looks like I win," the Tarnished said as the spectral Rennala began to fade.
"Ah... Ranni, my sweet daughter... walk into your own dark path..." With those final words, the illusion dissolved. The starry sky vanished, and they were back in the dusty Grand Library.
The real Rennala sat in the center of the room, clutching her amber egg. She looked nothing like the warrior they had just fought; she was a broken woman, lost in grief.
"My Queen... please, come back to us," Moongrum pleaded, but she didn't hear him.
"She's in a bad way," the Tarnished noted. "A complete mental collapse."
"That coward Radagon... she gave him everything, and he cast her aside for the capital!" Moongrum's voice dripped with venom.
"Cast her aside? Fill me in."
Moongrum briefly recounted the history. There were two great wars. First, Caria defeated the Academy. Second, the Golden Order attacked Caria, led by the red-haired hero Radagon. But at the height of the battle, Radagon and Rennala fell in love, uniting the two powers.
They had three children: Radahn the Starscourge, Rykard the Praetor, and Ranni the Lunar Princess.
But when the first Elden Lord, Godfrey, was stripped of his Grace and banished as a Tarnished, Radagon abruptly left Rennala. He returned to the Capital to marry Queen Marika and became the second Elden Lord.
"Wait, wait," the Tarnished interrupted, rubbing his temples. "This red-head married Marika? And became the new King?"
"Yes. A heartless opportunist."
The Tarnished went silent. So that's how it is. Marika... you really did that? He remembered the "Old Barbarian" Godfrey. The man was a warrior's warrior. To be replaced by a scholar in red hair... Godfrey, my friend, you got cuckolded by the Golden Order itself.
"What are you thinking about?" Moongrum asked.
"Nothing. Just... divine politics." The Tarnished turned to Rennala. "I'm here for the Great Rune."
As if in response, the amber egg in Rennala's lap glowed with a golden light. A Great Rune drifted out and merged with the Tarnished. Surprisingly, Rennala didn't resist. She didn't even seem to notice.
"That's the Great Rune of the Unborn," Moongrum whispered. "Even the children who were never born inherited a piece of the Elden Ring..."
"I've got what I came for," the Tarnished said. "But I have two more things before I go. One: I need another Glintstone Key. Two: what do you know about a sorceress named Sellen?"