Nier Chapter 162

'Uh oh.' I thought with a wry smile as even as I absorbed the great amount of runes flooding into my body from Rykards corpse I quickly grabbed Melina's ghost form and A2 before a portal opened up beneath our feet throwing us a couple meters outwards into the golden grass-covered land of the land of the Altus Plateau I had seen from the elevated position of Mt Gelmir.

"Why teleport away?" Melina asked but as though to spite her, a heavy rumble shook the earth with a large plum of smoke bursting from the tip of MT Gelmir making me give a weak smile.

"Because my Guardian, the shadow being put too much force into smashing Rykard's head into the soft ground with the volcano erupting slightly due to that... I don't want to be anywhere near where a Volcano exploded obviously." 

Shaking my head I looked away from the erupting Volcano and held out a hand to Melina and smiled more naturally as I said. "Alright, let's infuse these runes into my body." 

And so she did, pushing the runes to heighten my body's four main stats in Strength, Endurance, Vigor, and Dexterity. I was after all only in this world to strengthen my bodies physical shell as my magical power and spiritual energy was all but too powerful already.

But that wasn't all. I could feel Rykards great rune already within my soul, its power of devouring was passively absorbing the energy around me and further increasing my natural stamina and mana regeneration. 

Now I just needed to make sure I didn't go mad with power and start eating literal people to become more powerful... Not a hard thing to avoid honestly.

"Alrighty! We are in the lovely lands of the Altus Plateau, I want to go meet a certain dragon lady but besides that we can go directly to kill Morgott in the capital and then we will have to do the whole song and dance with the Land of the Giants." I spoke as I stretched my body, feeling its upgrades and the power of the runes spent in upgrading my body to a higher natural level.

Giving a slight hum A2 said with a slight sigh. "This dragon lady is going to try to kill you isn't she?" 

To which I looked at A2's utterly unamused eyes and I shamelessly nodded as I jokingly said. "Yup! But it will be open battle in the fields, I will be able to have my Guardian out and fighting at its full strength." 

Honestly right now, in the world of Elden Ring, the only two beings I knew could remotely match my Guardian pound for pound in strength would be the Fire Giant, and the Elden Beast that was within the core of the Erd Tree.

But with the mental reminder of the Erd Tree I looked to A2 and said. "A2, open up the dimensional connection to YoRHa, and tell them we need several excessively high-yield bombs ready for me to grab." 

A2 gave me a sour look at needing to connect to YoRHa's servers but I just shrugged and said with a wry smile. "We are going to need the bombs to blow up the Erd Tree and force the Elden Beast into the world." 

I had zero intention of going into the Elden Beast's pocket dimension to fight Radagon and then the Elden Beast which was a literal Outer-God fragment... Trying to fight something that literally threw cosmic dust that exploded with the simulated force of literal stars exploding was a stupid as hell idea.

After A2 did so, I raised up the ground beneath us in another platform that flew off into the distance. But as we were flying Melina finally got over her shock at my words and with a some amusement to her voice she said boredly. "Simple mortal bombs won't work upon the Erd Tree. It has stood long before even the Golden Order came to the world of the Lands Between and it acts as the core of this world."

To which I smiled and said replied plainly. "I have a dozen ways to kill off the barriers the Erd Tree has up, so just be patient and watch." 

We were mostly silent now as we flew over the fields of golden land that was the Altus Plateau and with the speed at we were flying at, it didn't take long for us to find the massive form of the Ancient Dragon Lansseax who was just minding her own damn business it looked like as she laid upon a large stone outcropping overlooking the decrepit city of gold.

Silently we landed a ways to her side and I gave A2 a look to stay out of sight while Melina... Instantly took to her shadowy ghost form to hide as Lansseax's aura filled the area with her power and draconic might.

Lansseax's dragon form was that of a western dragon as was the norm for Elden Ring dragons with her scales being of a strong stone-like texture and even her very wings looking like they were made from elastic stone.

I confidently walked across the rocks with my feet making some noise as they kicked aside the gravel to gain her attention as I made my way from her side more to her front with her large draconic head picking up and looking at me with casual disinterest.

"Why are you here mortal who isn't Tarnished. Why have you climbed to this vista to stand near one such as myself?" Lansseax spoke regally with her voice coming out in a distinctly feminine tone but still of a deeper powerful voice that belied her size.

I gave a slight hum before I said honestly. "I wanted to meet the strongest surviving dragon besides the cowardly dragon lord Placidusax, and your brother... Who has been driven to madness in the darkness soooo." In the end, I shrugged and added evenly.

"I imagine you aren't taking on students to teach the dragon arts of controlling lightning are you?" 

Lansseax's slitted draconic eyes tightened on my form before she huffed and her voice spoke with annoyance and simmering hate. "Thou are a brave one... One who has stolen the glory of my once beloved in attaining his dream. But you would be correct, humanity and even the Tarnished are doomed within this world to be naught but dust so spending years upon mortals be wasted when I can remain in peace." 

I tilted my head to the side and said with some curiosity. "You speak of Vyke... Though he never managed to get a Great Rune he was called the greatest hope the Tarnished had with your support. But then he became tainted by the Flames of Madness."

Shaking my head I filled the air with my mana as I looked Lansseax directly in the face as I spoke seriously. "Dragon Lansseax I challenge you in the ways of old. I will defeat you and you will enter my service."