An incantation you can use right now?
The female ghost bent forward, resting her chin on one hand braced against her knee, her thoughts drifting to the power this young man had once wielded, something he called miracles.
Causing trouble on someone else's turf, their first meeting was never going to be pleasant. Like dry tinder meeting open flame, it ignited instantly.
Even so, no matter how hard the brat struggled, he had still been effortlessly suppressed by her. Leaving aside that strange art utterly unlike any sorcery she had ever seen, those so-called miracles were, at their core, a power strikingly similar to incantations.
"I've already taught you every incantation you're capable of using, and I've explained the theory behind the ones you can't," the female ghost said, shaking her head lightly. She clearly understood the young man's hunger for power. "Instead of chasing useless quantity, you'd be better off mastering what you already have."
"Besides," she added suddenly, a glint of anticipation flashing in her eyes, "since you can use miracles without a medium, why don't you try this: see if you can cast incantations without a Sacred Seal."
She knew this young man possessed rare talent and potential. If he could break free of conventional limits, the results might be far beyond expectation.
"That actually makes a lot of sense. How did I never think of that?" Nolan's eyes lit up. He dropped down onto the ground, rubbed his chin, and sank into deep thought.
He realized that he had always relied far too heavily on the Sacred Seal when using incantations, never once questioning whether that limitation was truly necessary.
The source of both miracles and prayers was faith. Not faith in gods, exactly, but something closer to the belief that one could recreate divine feats through one's own will.
The First Flame encompassed all things. Every clearly defined concept in the world of Dark Souls was born from it and would one day return to it.
After repeated attempts, Nolan found that he could freely wield the miracles and sorceries of Dark Souls without relying on a Chime or a Staff.
More importantly, the Lord's Soul itself was divine power. That alone gave his miracles a unique nature.
From a certain perspective, Nolan's miracles were not simply imitations of divine acts. Rather, it was as though the miracles themselves were imitating the way gods wielded power. In a sense, this was his shortcut to making use of divine strength.
Incantations in Elden Ring originated from the gods of the Lands Between, both those in the open and those lurking in the shadows.
But Elden Ring was not Dark Souls. Nolan wasn't sure whether he could rely on the First Flame to recreate the miracles of this world's gods.
"Wait a second," Nolan suddenly widened his eyes, as if he had noticed something crucial. "When you use miracles, you don't seem to use a Sacred Seal at all!?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Lady Ghost shot him an exasperated look. "Have you ever seen a Lord or a God use a Sacred Seal?"
Nolan searched his memory, then shook his head.
He didn't know much about the gods of the Lands Between, but he did know one Empyrean, Miquella. When Miquella used incantations, he never needed a Sacred Seal. Every prayer came effortlessly to hand.
"The reason you need Sacred Seals is because you yourselves are too weak."
"A true powerhouse doesn't need to borrow a god's strength. Their own power is the real miracle."
Lady Ghost smiled and shook her head.
How many true gods were there in the Lands Between, really? Aside from the Greater Will, the supreme force of creation that could truly be called a god, the rest of the so-called deities were nothing more than beings with exceptional individual strength and unusual abilities.
"That's true," Nolan said, nodding in agreement. "His Highness Miquella once said that Sacred Seals and staves are merely tools used to guide and amplify power."
"When someone's own abilities are limited, when they can't directly cast spells or incantations, that's when they need external aids," he continued. "Just like a warrior needs a blade."
Just like the legendary First Elden Lord. His greataxe was little more than an accessory.
Those terrifying muscles of his were the real weapons. If he felt even slightly displeased, he'd tear the ground apart, and even Golden Lineage Demigods would have to obediently call him Daddy.
The counterexample was Godrick, the diluted-blood demigod who tried to imitate that style of combat. The result spoke for itself. Lacking the strength to support it, no matter how ferociously he swung his axe, all he earned was ridicule.
Lady Ghost lightly brushed her fingers over the bracelet on her left wrist. In the blink of an eye, a longsword materialized out of thin air.
As the radiance of the Golden Order flared, the blade ignited with dazzling gold. What had been an unremarkable straight sword was instantly reinforced severalfold.
"Let's do some live practice. I want to see where your strength stands now. Don't worry, I won't go all out. I'd also like to get another feel for those strange powers of yours."
Nolan's gaze burned as he stared at that piece of storage equipment, his heart full of envy.
There was no such thing as a game inventory in the real world. If only he could have a bracelet like that someday.
If he did, he could stuff all the Crimson Flasks he had stockpiled at home inside it and turn into the Elden Potion Lord on the spot.
The thought alone made him giddy.
"Alright!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Nolan drew the greatsword from his back. Power surged through his entire body and poured into the blade as he charged forward like a falling meteor.
His eyes were filled with pure battle hunger. This was his first time sparring with an opponent in this world who might truly reach godhood.
Their clash when they first met could hardly count as a spar. That had been nothing more than a one-sided beating.
He sprinted at full speed, grass and clippings whipping up beneath his feet into a swirling green gale.
What awaited him, however, was a blaze of brilliant light, dazzling like a field of stars.
One golden dagger after another shot out from the radiance, moving with terrifying speed, streaking through the air like meteors.
They crisscrossed into a dense web, sealing off every retreat, every sliver of space Nolan might have used to evade.
"Way slower than usual."
The thought made Nolan smile wryly.
If a god truly went all out, he probably wouldn't even have time to show hostility before he was already dead.
Those golden daggers were not thrown by hand. It was as if each one were fitted with a precise homing mechanism, locking onto Nolan and flying straight at him.
Clearly, the Ghost Lady's mastery of the Golden Order's power went far beyond anything written in books.
Realizing there was no way to dodge, Nolan stopped dead in his tracks. His hands snapped together, and the air around him began to churn violently.
Wrath of the Gods!
With a single thought, the power of incantations erupted.
A powerful shockwave burst outward from the knight, the air compressing into twisted, invisible shells that detonated in an instant.
"Not bad, kid."
Lady Ghost lifted an eyebrow slightly. She had seen similar power before and could even achieve something comparable herself.
Even so, while the effects looked alike, the source of that power was clearly different.
The area Nolan's force covered was relatively small, barely extending a meter in radius.
Yet when the shockwave collided with the golden daggers, the violent clash of energies knocked them all off their original trajectories.