After they killed the group of residents who had thrown the fire pots, they began to circle through the vast Stormveil City. They lost count of how many similar ambushes they had encountered during this time.
Stacked explosive barrels, residents hiding in corners and suddenly rushing out, exiled soldiers shooting bows and crossbows from high ground, and even Lost Knights emerging from rooms with swords and shields in hand.
The three of them dealt with these hidden guards one by one.
It's just that the further they progressed, the stranger Azan and Serpico found it.
Nidhogg obviously didn't have a map of Stormveil City, but he seemed to have been here countless times. There were no signs of him getting lost.
What's more, there were several unexpected ambushes and traps that Nidhogg pointed out in advance. Otherwise, they would have been caught off guard.
Azan and Serpico were puzzled. In the end, they could only attribute it to Nidhogg's magical ability, like Rogier's magic. Thinking about it this way, many things became simpler.
When he encountered a locked door, Nidhogg didn't bother looking for a key. He kicked the door open.
He had long wanted to do this. The phrase "door does not open from this side" should now be meaningless to him.
Nidhogg also deliberately looked back, not noticing where the "gatekeeper" Gostoc was hiding.
If this were in the game, Gostoc would be following him at this moment, secretly setting traps.
It seemed Gostoc must have seen so many of them and hadn't followed.
After climbing the stone stairs for a while, they saw a door from which came the sound of heavy footsteps and clashing armor.
When all three approached the door, they saw an elevator in the room. But the elevator platform was down, revealing a pit that stretched both up and down.
And the elevator was guarded by another Lost Knight.
This time, the Lost Knight held a halberd. He heard the sound, turned around, and saw Nidhogg and the other two coming here.
The reason they are called "Lost Knights" is that they lost their homeland and their original lords.
For the original Erdtree, there were many great threats, two of which were: one was the storm, the other was the flame. This symbolized the power of the Storm King and the Fire Giant.
Stormveil City was the Storm King's fortress, but later it was breached by the "First Elden Lord" Godfrey and brought under the Erdtree's dominion.
The knights lost their homeland, lost their original king of allegiance. Most of them died in the battle with the kings. Only a small part survived, after which they chose different paths.
Oleg, one of the "Storm King's Wings," chose to follow the "Blessed King" Morgott. Ingvall always held Stormveil City to protect it without the Storm King. The latter two knights returned as heroes.
The veteran Niall stood up for the defeated knights of the lost homeland at the cost of his own legs, allowing them to survive and forming them into a legion of the lost.
This lost legion of the lost was sent to garrison the snowy mountain city of Sol Castle for the Erdtree's forces, to control territory that originally belonged to the Fire Giant and now belonged to the Erdtree.
Thus, both the storm and the fire threats were suppressed by the Erdtree.
The Lost Knight guarding the elevator clearly possessed combat skills similar to Ingvall's. As soon as he saw Nidhogg and the others, he swung his halberd, raised a whirlwind, and prepared to attack.
But Nidhogg was ready. He moved faster than the Lost Knight. He lunged forward like an arrow and heavily stepped on the Lost Knight's breastplate, knocking him backward, thereby interrupting his combat skill.
Before the Lost Knight could get up, Nidhogg was already upon him. Bloodhound's Fang swept out!
With a sharp sound, the Lost Knight's head was severed. It flew into the air and fell to the ground. The wall was stained with a layer of blood.
Before Azan and Serpico could even see what was happening, the Lost Knight was defeated by Nidhogg with astonishing speed.
They both felt a little numb, because Nidhogg had been dealing with his opponents this quickly all along, except for the encounters with Margit and the Crucible Knight.
It seemed that the Lost Knights, Godrick's soldiers, exiled soldiers, and the residents were all characters of comparable combat strength.
However, based on simple observation, Azan and Serpico could surmise that the two Lost Knights were definitely stronger than those Godrick soldiers and other miscellaneous soldiers. At least, they were stronger than the two of them.
Remembering this, they looked at each other and were even more glad that they had happened to meet Nidhogg this time and decided to negotiate, rather than summoning soldiers and horses to surround and suppress him. The consequences in this situation were completely unimaginable.
Nidhogg flicked the blood off Bloodhound's Fang and calmly returned to Azan and Serpico.
At that moment, they heard a rumbling sound from the elevator beside them.
The elevator platform slowly rose from below, revealing a knight in heavy crimson armor, holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. He looked quite heroic.
Azan and Serpico recognized the knight at first glance. They had only seen him once last night, and this was the same knight as the Crucible Knight.
They quickly understood that this Crucible Knight must be the same one the "blacksmith" Hewg would meet again.
Nidhogg was a little surprised.
In this tower, there were indeed two elevators. The Crucible Knight was guarding the bottom of the lower elevator.
Since he could appear here, it meant he had heard the commotion and taken the elevator to the top of the tower. This was very laborious.
Fortunately, Nidhogg was just about to look for this Crucible Knight. It was better that he delivered himself to the door.
After the Crucible Knight descended, he first looked at the three, then targeted Nidhogg, who was clearly the most powerful among them.
He took a step, shook the dust on the ground, and charged forward, thrusting his sword at Nidhogg!
Nidhogg had already raised his brass shield. The white light of Iron Wall enveloped the shield's surface. With a loud CLANG!, he blocked the sword as steadily as Mount Tai, even forcing the Crucible Knight back a step, almost tripping him.
Seizing the moment when the Crucible Knight was off balance, Nidhogg's Bloodhound's Fang slashed precisely. With a sharp SCHLICK!, he severed the Crucible Knight's shield arm at the elbow!
THUD—!
The arm fell to the ground along with the Crucible Horn Shield. Blood uncontrollably sprayed from the stump of the Crucible Knight's severed arm, spattering everywhere.
At this time, Melina silently appeared in the corner, preparing the power of faith for Nidhogg.
The Crucible Knight remained a silent knight. Even if his arm was suddenly broken, he didn't say a word. He suddenly turned and used Crucible Tail. A golden tail whip lashed at Nidhogg!
It seemed Nidhogg had a connection with him. He turned the same way and used the same Crucible Tail!
The two thick golden tail whips met in the same spot, making a loud sound. For a time, golden light shone. Both were shattered!
Seeing this, the Crucible Knight was suspicious for a while, then reacted. For the first time, he uttered a muffled sound from within his helmet: "You killed the Crucible Knight roaming outside and took his Crucible incantation?"
Nidhogg preferred not to use words, but to answer with actions. Another Crucible Tail came.
The Crucible Knight, with his arm suddenly broken, had already lost too much blood and felt a little dizzy. Suddenly learning that his former comrade, the Crucible Knight who had gone mad and been imprisoned, was dead, his heart was shaken.
FWOOSH—!
The Crucible Tail rushed before him like thunder. He only came to his senses now, but there was no time to react.
The golden tail whip hit him in the head, knocking him out and slamming him into the wall!
Nidhogg immediately gave chase, but found the Crucible Knight had fallen into a corner. His helmet was dented, and crimson blood flowed from it. The longsword in his hand had been thrown aside.
Although he still had breath, he had given up.
The dying Crucible Knight slowly looked up, stared at Nidhogg, and murmured:
"In the age of the Crucible... the Erdtree was once an all-consuming entity... But now even our king has been exiled..."
"No wonder he went mad... would be locked in a sealed cell... What can I do... Only by adhering to the royal lineage... Stormveil City... waiting for his return..."
Nidhogg knew that "our king" mentioned by the Crucible Knight referred to Godfrey, who had been exiled from the Junction by Marika.
The tragedy of this group of Crucible Knights was no less than that of the Lost Knights. They had all lost the king they once served. They also had to make choices: serve their current master, stay in their city, or resist madness.
After these words, the Crucible Knight was completely dead.
Nidhogg obtained a new Crucible incantation, also an ancient Erdtree incantation.
「Incantation: Crucible Horn」
"Can create a rigid horn on the shoulder, lower the stance and thrust upward, then charge forward."
At the same time, the growth progress of the "Golden Tree" reached 75%.
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