[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-starting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring":3,"chapter-starting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring-starting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring-chapter-267":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Starting at Hogwarts, Logging into Elden Ring",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1496160,1944,"Chapter 267: Fleur the Outsider, the Crucible of Life and the Erdtree","starting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring-chapter-267",267,"\u003Cp>The next day, on the streets of Britain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fleur had anticipated that Arthur wouldn't be shopping alone with her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she never imagined it would be this lively.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the moment, Arthur was being held on the left and right by Hermione and Ranni, with Ifrit and Leyna perched on his shoulders. Behind him trailed a large procession of spirits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Huang Xi and Dong Huang hadn't been far too eye-catching, Fleur suspected they'd probably be surrounding Arthur as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for why ghosts appearing in the Muggle world caused no problems—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>that was simple. Muggles couldn't see them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arthur wasn't sure how things worked for the ghosts of the wizarding world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the ones in his care were different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as they didn't wish to be seen, Muggles simply couldn't perceive them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So they could walk openly down the streets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At most, if a Muggle passed through a spirit's body, they might feel a sudden chill.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fleur stared at the massive group of spirits behind Arthur.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Malenia was holding her sister Trina's hand, curiously observing the architecture—so different in style from anything in the Lands Between.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Radahn, surprisingly, got along quite well with Latenna.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So now he was carrying the mobility-impaired Latenna on his broad shoulders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what Fleur truly could not comprehend—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why were there two jellyfish spirits?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the first time she'd ever heard of jellyfish becoming ghosts—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and such large ones at that!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Were they some kind of magical creature?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fleur didn't understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was thoroughly shaken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So much so that she completely forgot about creating an opportunity to be alone with Arthur.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, Fleur abandoned the idea entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were simply too many people around him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn't believe she had the ability to distract—or get rid of—so many at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, what was meant to be a simple outing turned into a full-fledged family excursion for Arthur and his entourage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fleur, mixed in among them, instead felt like a complete outsider.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, Arthur still remembered that he'd come out specifically to help Fleur purchase learning materials for fashion design.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He took her through several bookstores and even made a trip to the city library.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the very least, Fleur's main objective for the day was accomplished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Lands Between, eastern Snowfield, atop the Mountaintops of the Giants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Fire Giant crumbled into ash, the extinction of the high-ranking giants was officially sealed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A race that, during the ancient Erdtree era, had once been powerful enough to rival Queen Marika's Golden Order—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now reduced to nothing more than lowly giants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enslaved by humans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Barely even three stories tall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the one who ended the last Fire Giant's life was none other than Arthur.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the battle itself, it wasn't worth describing in detail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Despite the Fire Giant's massive body—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>despite its roars that could shatter nature, trigger avalanches, or summon storms of flame—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That very size condemned it to clumsiness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arthur dealt with it effortlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't even allow the Fire Giant to enter its second phase—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The phase where it would sacrifice part of its body to the Fell God of Flame in exchange for greater power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arthur destroyed the channel of sacrifice outright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The giant eye embedded in its chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Fire Giant died, it gazed unwillingly toward the east—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Toward the Giant's Forge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sacred totem of the giants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arthur followed that gaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was also the final destination of his journey across the Snowfield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even from this distance, with blizzards obscuring his vision, he could still faintly make out the outline of the Giant's Forge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, Arthur's thoughts grew tangled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Come to think of it, the reason this Fire Giant had survived the war against the Erdtree in the first place was because of Marika herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After defeating the giants, Marika discovered that the \"fell god's flame\" they worshipped could never truly be extinguished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So she cursed the last surviving Fire Giant, transforming it into the eternal warden of the flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The very one Arthur had just slain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for why Marika had moved against the giants in the first place—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, because the power of the Fell God's Flame posed a threat to the Erdtree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had to eliminate that danger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, because only then could a new age begin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arthur suspected that the Giant's Forge was once the Crucible of Life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Age of the Erdtree didn't begin with the defeat of the ancient dragons, nor with the fall of the Dragonlord.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn't even begin when Destined Death was sealed and the laws of Golden Fundamentalism were established.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It began when fire was defeated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the Crucible of Life was born of the Lands Between, while the Erdtree came from beyond them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They represented two different eras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when one era ended could the next truly begin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And because the Crucible of Life was deeply bound to the Lands Between, its flame could never be extinguished so long as the land itself endured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Furthermore, the nature of the Crucible meant it could only be guarded by giants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If ordinary beings tried to approach it, they would be punished by the Crucible—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>transformed into Misbegotten, beings born inherently lesser.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arthur owned a spirit ash titled Winged Misbegotten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The system's description read:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A soul with wings of a hundred forms, firing arrows while flying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The birth of the Misbegotten is said to be a punishment for contact with the Crucible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus they are born slaves, known as the defiled.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The many demi-human races scattered across the Lands Between might very well be connected to the ancient war with the giants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were also indirect signs that the Erdtree and the Crucible were fundamentally opposed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, the Crucible Knights.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were followers of Godfrey, the First Elden Lord—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>figures who should have enjoyed immense status and honor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet everywhere Arthur encountered Crucible Knights, they were stationed in forgotten corners of the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some were even sealed away in evergaols.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was clear that the Erdtree's forces and the Crucible were natural enemies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, in spite of this hostility—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To become Elden Lord and stand before the Elden Ring, one had to reignite the Giant's Forge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by using its flame to burn away the Erdtree's impenetrable thorns could one enter its interior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even more ironically, the one chosen to act as kindling—Melina—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was selected by Marika herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The very woman who had once sought to extinguish that flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fate truly had a twisted sense of humor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But none of that concerned Arthur.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had never intended to become Elden Lord in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All he wanted was a way to preserve Melina's soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That blockhead still refused to believe that Arthur could strip her of her role as kindling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Advance Chapters Available on Patreon\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>patreon.com\u002FWhiteDevil7554\u003C\u002Fp>",1137,"2026-06-06T04:19:46.382Z",1,"novelbin.me","b9b565857432b4954e72fbb0d59e8fdac5a710a0d4fc16a501660ab37c1217af","starting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring-chapter-268","starting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring-chapter-266",281,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstarting-at-hogwarts-logging-into-elden-ring-cover.jpg"]