Chapter 1: Far From the Lands Between

Cracking his back after killing the Elden Beast for the eighth time, Cal took the time to finally get up from his chair after a day-long of gaming. He could sense some soreness in his knees from sitting down for so long, but he simply did some stretching to work out the kinks before he headed out to his kitchen.

Walking out of his room in his high-rise apartment, he was greeted by the sight of a lively city down below. At a glance, he could see people rushing from store to store, eating at restaurants with smiles and a rather festive mood. It was to be expected since New Year was just in a few minutes. Everyone was celebrating in their own way.

Comparatively, his apartment was quiet and colorless as his living room was illuminated only by the city lights that never seemed to be off. He was very much alone during the holidays, and while some might pity Cal for his situation, the truth was that he had brought about this circumstance out of his own free will. Not by alienating his family and friends with poor social skills, but by deliberately wishing to be alone.

He himself did not feel sad and instead found his solitude to be a dream come true. It was that he hated people or inherently disliked them, he merely found the fictional to be infinitely more interesting than the real world. That included people.

Going on exciting adventures inside of video games was the most fun he could imagine for himself, and while his family and friends did not approve of his hobby, he did not care as long as his lifestyle didn't affect anyone else. He made his own money by day trading, he never asked anything of anyone, and he didn't burden anyone in any way.

Getting a snack from the fridge, he headed back to his room even as he heard the fanatic shouts of celebration down below. For him, being able to play games in peace was a form of celebration in and of itself.

Walking back to his room his head was filled with ideas as to what to do next. He had managed to level up all his stats to the limit, and obtained every weapon, spell, incantations, and armor. He had done all the endings, finished every quest as far as he could even though he could tell some quests were unfinished. So what was left?

He had already done challenges like not summoning, not dodging, and even not taking damage. Perhaps he was done with the game? There were other games to try out anyway.

However, upon returning to his computer he noticed something was off about the game. There was a prompt on the screen, and Cal was sure that no one had ever mentioned anything like this in any online forum, was this added in the latest patch?

After reading the prompt a few times Cal could only be more confused, so he decided to read it out loud to see if he was misreading things, "Love games? Wish real life was like a game? Then please join this unique opportunity to make your wildest dreams come true!"

It was beyond strange. Those words read more like constant ads he had seen for camgirl sites than something that should be in a FromSoftware game. 'Am I being pranked?'

Moving his cursor he slowly moved over to select no, but then he thought about it for a second, and in a fleeting urge of curiosity he immediately selected yes instead. 'I'm just curious and in case I get some malware, I'll just buy a new PC'

And not outside of his expectations, the screen just immediately shut down along with this whole PC.

"Great… What was I expecting really?"

However before he could move to boot up his PC again, he noticed that it wasn't just his PC that shut down. His whole apartment was suddenly dark and the light from his windows had completely stopped illuminating his room.

'Did the city have a power outage as I clicked yes? Typical, having a power outage during New Year… Shitty City Council never gets anything right.'

Reaching forward to get his phone and turn his flashlight out, Cal was almost thrown off-balance when his hand went right through the darkness where his desk was supposed to be.

It was then that a sudden jolt of power coursed through his body and burned from the inside until tears began to stream down his cheeks but no shout would escape his mouth. The searing pain assaulted every inch of his body and for a moment Cal believed that he was suffering in hell.

However just as soon as the excruciating pain arrived, it dissipated as though it had never been there in the first place. Before he could even being to register what had just happened to him, a new feeling arose from his core, a blinding light that traveled from underneath his skin and completely erased his body as it turned to ash.

Finally feeling his voice return, Cal shouted in anguish as his life was extinguished and his hands crumbled into dust right before his eyes. In the last moments, before his body returned to dust, he wished he could have spent more time having adventures through games. To have some fun, just one more time.

'Huh? Am I dead? My body is gone, but why do I remain? Is this what death is like for everyone?'

A thousand questions raced through his mind as he assessed his situation. Cal had never been religious, but naturally, he had hoped that there would be something waiting for him after death. Still, the void that surrounded him was neither the heaven nor hell he had heard about, and this caused him no small amount of confusion.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of beating drums from the depths of the void. One after the other the sounds of beating drums seemed to expand throughout the darkness and reach into Cal's mind.

With each sound of the drum that resonated inside him, the rate of how quickly the drums rang increased, and soon his mind was filled with nothing but the deafening sound of ever-present beats.

Then a symbol he recognized shone through the darkness as the sounds of beating drums were replaced with the clang of a smithing hammer perfecting the symbol of godhood he had seen throughout the Lands Between.

Then there was nothing.

Faster than his brain could receive information from the light entering his eyes, Cal found himself standing in complete contrast to the void that seemed to suffocate all light. Now he could only see a vast grassland ahead of him.

For a second he was stunned, and as he took a step forward he realized that it wasn't only the environment that had changed, but his body as well. Reaching out he took a look at his hands and was greeted by a lustrous black and gold gauntlet with sharp claw-like fingers.

'This is Malekith's set… what is going on here?'

Further inspecting his body he found that not only was he wearing the full armor set he was wearing in Elden Ring after he beat the game, but he even held the Carian Regal Scepter in his left hand and the Sacred Relic Sword in the right.

He was stunned at the weapons in his hands, and he quickly went to examine the items closer after a sound testing of swinging the sword with expertise he did not know he had, he determined that he was indeed holding a real sword.

The items were not only real, but innately he could sense the great power that each item held, as though they were really magical and divine. 'Will this work? There's no way.'

Focusing on the power he felt the sword had, he performed a consummate swing from his left to his right, and at his motion, the energy summoned a strong holy light that flowed into the ground and traveled through it as it destroyed everything in its wake for a much longer distance that he remembered from the game.

"It's real…"

Such a weird development should have taken Cal for a spin, and further confused him, but that was far from the truth. Cal knew exactly what was going on, at least for the most part.

He wasn't a stranger to the escape fantasy many people had. They wished to be whisked away from their mundane life and be transported to their favorite book, movie, tv show, or, in his case, a video game. There they would be given great power and go on crazy adventures while living a life that was unrestricted compared to their previous world. Of course, he understood that. And it was happening to him.

There was only one problem. That type of thing only happened in fiction, and if it did happen in real life it would not happen to him.

But it was happening to him. It was real. The large scar he had left on the beautiful landscape proved it so, so what next, he thought.

Going into a new world is the type of thing people think about all the time, and they have a huge list of things they want to try like fighting dragons, saving maidens, playing the role of the villain, or even trying their luck with their opposite sex, but now that he was here he was at a loss.

There were so many possibilities forward that he could not decide what to do.

Then another thought struck him.

'I am in the Lands Between right?'

He had been thinking about visiting the Magic Academy to see if he could fix his poor teacher, but as he looked at the horizon for any familiar sight, he noticed the lack of any Erdtree, minor or not.

The Erdtree was supposed to be visible from mostly everywhere in the land, so why was it gone? He could not suppress a bad feeling in his gut.

'What about my other items? Do I still have them?'

Not wanting to tackle the unknown with just two weapons, he quickly realized the did not have a pouch with him to carry anything extra. Then he tried to see if he had some type of inventory still, he would be grateful if he still had everything he worked so hard to get.

And to his surprise, a screen opened in his mind's eye and he saw not only his inventory with all his weapons and items, but he even saw everything he kept in his storage in a separate tab. Everything was still here, even all the armors.

He could see his equipment, and he was pleased to see he still held his maxed-out flasks, his talismans, and his mimic tear. There was just one thing he could notice missing. There might have been other things missing, but only one item struck out to him.

Torrent's ring.

Cal had mixed feelings about that. On one hand, he was disappointed that he would not be able to ride his mount, but on the other hand, he was happy that he would not have to worry about Torrent getting hurt.

This was definitely game-like, but it felt too real and there were likely consequences to dying here. Cal was excited, but he still understood that he might not respawn like in the game, and the same went for Torrent.

Finally, Cal decided to touch his face and his hand jolted away when he felt features that were not his own. It was jarring to think that he was now in another body, but thankfully he had modeled his character after him, though he did touch up and enhance himself to a certain extent. He was just happy he hadn't created a meme character like he used to for other games, he would be very horrified if he was in one of the monstrous characters he sometimes made.

"So where to now?"

Deciding to just head in a direction and see what type of adventures he could get into, Cal started walking in the direction he awoke in.

After walking for a few minutes Cal was starting to feel grateful that he had a new body as he doubted that his old one could have walked around for any period of time with such heavy armor under the hot sun. He had not tested the full extent of his new body's power but he could sense tremendous force in his muscle just waiting to be released in a fury of motion.

It might sound strange to others, he thought, but he was itching to get into a fight. Whether it was bandits, monsters, demons, or even ghosts, he was pumped to try out his new abilities.

That and he was looking forward to seeing how spells and incantations worked in this world. He could not select which spells he wanted to use, so he wondered how he would cast anything. MP did not recover by itself so he did not want to waste any with experiments while he didn't know how he would replenish his flasks.

It would be different if he could find a site of grace, and perhaps they would restore when he slept or something to that effect, but for now, he did not wish to waste his resources.

He had also been experimenting with his inventory and had found several useful mechanics he would certainly find uses for.

For instance, he noticed that he was able to pull out any weapon and staff with a thought. The arm he wanted to hold the weapon with would have any weapons or staff equipped returned to his inventory instantly.

Similarly, he picked up on a useful feature that allowed him to return dropped weapons to his inventory from far away. He hadn't tested every possible distance to see if there were any limitations but he doubted that there were any. That meant he could instantly retrieve any weapon he lost during combat after the battle or during.

Along with those discoveries he also quickly found out that his new body required food and his stomach was letting him know that his Rowa berries would not cut it for long. He also had other kinds of animal and beast meat in his inventory but it was hard for a person who lived all his life eating processed foods to suddenly become Bear Grylls.

He continued to walk through the grassy plains hoping he would find a town or city soon so he could enjoy some good food. 'Wait, I have no money…'

He had several million runes in his inventory but they were not even enough to level up once. Not that he could allocate any more points either way. He was unsure of whether he was in the Lands Between or not, but he could only hope he had some means to purchase food.

He had no problems with stealing for the sake of food but he did not want to go down that route if he could avoid it.

Suddenly instinct snapped him out of his musings and both his current arms were unequipped and replaced with the Erdtree Bow. He had not had his new body for long but he had quickly acclimated to his new instincts, and he decided to follow the lead of the trained fighter's body rather than his own mind for such situations.

And as if to affirm his decision, he spotted a large bird-like creature flying high above the clouds like a spy drone. Thankfully, Cal's new eyes were able to see the creature clearly despite the high altitude, and although he didn't know what the creature was exactly, it was no normal bird.

It was watching him with purpose, different from that of a predator, but still, there was a lingering sense of malice in its gaze.

Taking a closer look at the creature he noticed it held a human-like face instead of a bird and as the monster noticed he was aiming his bow at him, he seemed to whisper something to seemingly no one.

But Cal knew better, it was communicating with someone.

Without any more hesitation, he let out his arrow, and with enough force to leave a strong gale in its wake, the arrow crossed the distance between the two faster than a speeding bullet. The arrow was so fast that the creature did not even have time to move out of the way, and the arrow also met no resistance as the impact was more than enough to pop the monster like a balloon.

'Perhaps the Erdtree Bow was overkill, still better safe than sorry.'

Putting his bow away, Cal decided to head in another direction. He had not been traveling for long so even if he changed directions now it would not be a huge loss. It was a shame since he was interested in fighting more monsters, but he started to worry about his food and flask situation.

However, before he could walk away his ears picked up on the sound of marching feet. Turning to see the source of the sound he was shocked to see a mob of skeletons rushing at him with swords in their hands.

The mob of skeletons was still a bit further away and would take a few more seconds to arrive at his position but that was more than enough time for him to make his decision.

'Being a knight who stands his ground against an army of skeletons is on the list of top romanticism fantasies. I can't let this chance slip away!'

Letting the skeletons come into what he believed to be his ideal range, Cal quickly materialized the Moonlight Great Sword in his right hand and let the wave of energy build up inside as he swung the massive sword with ease.

The blue magical energy was released in a howl of ice as the temperature dropped drastically and if the power displayed by the Sacred Relic Sword or the Erdtree Bow were not enough, the power of the Moonlight Great Sword cemented that his attacks were far more potent in here than they ever were in the game.

The horde of skeletons that numbered in the hundreds disappeared as the energy released from the great sword did. Nothing that the energy touched remained, 'Not even bones…Okay, that one was bad.'

Making sure that he still had the Carian Filigreed Crest, he assessed his MP pool and felt it had not ever budged from the skill usage.

'Still, that raises an even bigger question, just where did such a horde come from?'

Using his keen eyes, he traced back the route the skeletons took and his eyes were astonished as he seemed to discover a rather large type of mausoleum.

"Sebas, I want your report," a sultry voice asked with an equal amount of seriousness and regality.

The great hall room ceased their bickering as Albedo, the Guardian Overseer asked Sebas Tian, the Head Butler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, for the scouting report that they had all been waiting for.

Those hoping to hear good news were unhappy to see Sebas frown at the question, it seemed that things were not as they should be.

"There are two pertinent subjects that must be reported regarding that matter," he began with the same serious expression the butler always adopted, "Firstly, the initial scouting report indicates that the Great Tomb of Nazarick has been displaced and the swamp that was supposed to be in our immediate vicinity has been replaced with a grassy plainland."

At this unexpected news, the two smartest Guardians allowed their expressions to share a minute frown.

Not long after the last Supreme Being had left the Tomb of Nazarick the Great Tomb of Nazarick had a sudden change that was only caught thanks to the reports of the Undead on the first floor.

Albedo had hoped that these initial reports were some type of illusion spell and Nazarick was under attack. It wasn't as though she wished Nazarick to be attacked, but it would certainly be something far easier to handle than the alternative.

What she had feared had come true, the Tomb of Nazarick really was moved. However, to her knowledge, there should be no spell to achieve something like that, not one she was aware of anyway. As Guardian Overseer, while the Supreme Beings were gone, this subject fell on her responsibility and she was looking forward to fixing the situation as soon as possible.

But before that, there was the other matter Sebas mentioned.

"And the other pertinent subject?"

Sebas took a moment to think about how to phrase this new information, it was critical that info was relayed accurately during such times after all.

"The scouts found the location of a knight who was wandering the nearby plains, his exact location was given to a squadron of undead from the first floor but both the scout that gave the information and the skeletons have been killed," he explained to the best of his ability, "There might be an enemy outside the Tomb."

Reaching the giant building, Cal couldn't help but notice that it was in pristine condition, as though it was not abandoned at all. Which was saddening considering that this tomb had been infested with undead judging by the number of skeletons he had to kill just to get to the entrance.

There seemed to be an almost endless supply of them, but thankfully, there were very easy to kill. After killing scores of skeletons to reach the entrance of the tomb, he was surprised to hear nothing coming from inside. It was slightly unnerving.

From up close he could tell that the tomb was even larger on the inside and his senses were telling him that inside there were countless strong monsters waiting to pounce on him.

He did take this moment of respite to gather his thoughts as he looked around before going inside. This was already shaping up to be more trouble than what he was thinking. At first, he simply wanted to do the owner of the tomb a favor by clearing up the area of undead so they could rest in peace without monsters roaming about, but now he was thinking his plan over.

It would be a lot more work than he was thinking at first, and the fact he hadn't had much time to get used to his new body was not helping him make a decision. There was another thing bothering him, something that was very strange.

Some of the tombs he had seen along the way had writing he recognized and it was odd to see it here. Certain tombs where you would expect to see the name of a person along with their importance were instead replaced with Japanese writing.

And if that wasn't weird enough, he found what the Japanese said to be even weirder.

He wasn't fluent but he knew enough to be able to read something when given the time to do so, and all these tombs were filled with troll messages he could expect to find in MMORPGs and similar games.

He had wanted to leave at first but there was no way he could let something like that slide, it seemed too important to ignore.

"Whatever, let's get this over with."

This was what he had been hoping for since he fell in love with games, there was no way he could back down at this point. Pulling out the Envoy's Long Horn, he headed towards the entrance of the tomb.

He had a feeling that some spaces here might get tight, so although he wanted to have another weapon out for what he felt could be a dungeon, it would be better to have something that would not get stuck on the walls. Besides Envoy's Long Horn was a faith weapon that would work perfectly against the undead and similar monsters.

He would clear out any mobs inside, find out why the Japanese language is outside the tomb and then leave. 'That's the plan anyway.'

After equipping a lantern to see inside the dark tomb, he headed inside.

To his surprise there seemed to be no more monsters anywhere in sight. The silence was a harsh contrast to the fighting he had just undergone and the ambiance of the mummified bodies around him did little to help his mood. Additionally, he didn't wish to disrespect the dead by showing rudeness in someone's tomb.

'This is not romantic at all.'

After looking around through the whole mausoleum for anything hidden, he decided to head down the large staircase in the center of the building. It was darker than before as he headed underground but his lantern was doing a surprising job keeping things illuminated. He always thought it a junk item but it seemed he would have to reevaluate his entire inventory to see how things behaved in this new world.

After a few more minutes of walking empty hallways, his instincts alerted him that he had just walked into an ambush. There was a presence of undead ahead of him along with another similar force that had made its way behind him. He still couldn't see them since it was so dark, but they were there just out of sight.

Putting his horn to his lips, he walked forward while blowing countless bubbles that jumped ahead and filled the hallway in the blink of an eye. Cal didn't remember the horn creating so many bubbles but he was no longer surprised about the efficacy of his items.

Following his bubbles, he soon came face to face with a new type of skeleton mob. Unlike the ones he had fought outside these ones were equipped with armor and shields, making them several things stronger purely via defense.

Cal didn't know where this extra sense was coming from, but it was very useful right now. He could vaguely sense the presence of monsters along with their relative strength to his own. Which was why he did not panic even as the skeletons behind him approached with silent steps.

Then the skeletons lunged at him from both directions, however lacking critical thinking the skeletons ahead of him jumped straight into the space of bubbles that was working as a holy minefield.

Despite their greater defense, they were not able to withstand the miniature explosions released by the bubbles and the group was decimated as all the bubbles began to explode in a chain reaction.

Quickly turning around to face the other wave of skeletons, he once again blew his horn to summon a barrage of holy bubbles that detonated in a blinding flash of holy magic. The impact was so close that he was forced to jump back to avoid getting hit with the energy.

He had not tested to see if his attacks could hurt him but something in his gut told him that they definitely could.

'That ambush… That was definitely designed, but is it game design, or is someone controlling these monsters? Or is it merely the nature of this new world?'

The answer to this question was important and finding an answer pushed him to go forward.

He was slightly worried about getting lost on his way back since he was sure that this floor was created to be like a maze to confuse people, but he already had something planned for that. All that mattered now was finding out why there was Japanese writing in a supposed fictional world.

There also didn't appear to be an end in sight and plenty of traps to slow him down. He was able to dodge and avoid most of them since they mostly followed traditional game design for dungeons, however as soon as he let his guard down a crest of light below him trapped him in a teleportation spell.

Cal tried to dodge out of the way but it was too late and before he knew it he was in a completely different room. The weird mobs and traps had created doubts in his mind, but this teleportation cemented the idea that he was not in the Lands Between as he originally thought. Still, teleportation traps tended to put you in a room that was way harder than the one it took you from so out Cal put his Envoy's Long Horn away and took out his Golden Order Seal.

Incantations were slightly more versatile than sorceries and he needed every advantage when tangling with the unknown. Before you could summon another weapon for his right hand, a voice called out from the darkness.

"It's been so long since I had a visitor, are you the intruder that everyone is talking about?"

The voice itself was strange, it sounded vaguely human but it also sounded like a mimicry which didn't bode well for Cal, however, it also was unusually cordial.

As Cal's eyes acclimated to the darkness and the room become more visible he was slightly disgusted to see he was knee-deep in a pool of cockroaches. Turning ahead to where the voice had come from, he saw a very peculiar figure.

There he saw the largest cockroach standing up on his hind legs like a human, he was adorned with a shiny crown and even a stylish cape.

He wanted to kill it at once, but since it could talk his desire to burn the bug was greatly decreased. Cal would like to avoid killing sentient life if at all possible, and this bug seemed to fit the bill.

"Intruder? I don't consider myself as such, or rather I was unaware that this place was still occupied, and who are you?" He asked while keeping his face hidden behind his helmet. The only reason Cal could keep his calm was that the cockroaches clinging to his legs could not enter his armor.

"Oh, excuse my rudeness," the roach began with a light bow, he held himself with a regal nature as though he were a monarch, "I am Kyouhukou, and I have been granted dominion over this space by the 41 Supreme Beings."

'Kyouhukou… That's also a Japanese name. Interesting.'

"Yes, I also should have introduced myself when I asked for your name," he apologized with a small laugh, "My name is Cal, and I was wondering if we could perhaps exchange information?"

The monster had been respectful thus far and he had been the only other being that had been able to talk. He would rather exchange information with another human or human-like being but he would not complain about this either.

"Exchange information? Well considering that I am thankful you have arrived in my room I suppose I don't exchanging some information," he said while slightly waving his golden scepter.

Smiling at the good development Cal, found that he had a lot of questions to ask but he knew that it would be better to just ask a few basic questions that would answer a lot rather than overwhelm the roach with endless queries.

"Then I only have two questions," Cal started while carefully phrasing his questions in his head, "First of all I would like to know where we are exactly and who gave you your name, is that too much to ask?"

Kyouhukou seemed confused at his questions as his head tilted from side to side for a few seconds, but it might just have been a habitual motion performed by roaches, but finally, he answered.

"Those are very interesting questions you have, but I have no problems answering them, or rather I would be happy to answer them," he began with an unusual glee in his voice, "You are currently on the Second Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, home of the 41 Supreme Beings. My name was given to me by one such Supreme Being, Luci Fer."

Cal took in his words and tried to make sense of things, but unfortunately, he had never heard of the Great Tomb of Nazarick before.

"I don't know anything about this tomb, but the name of your Supreme Being, Lucifer… That is familiar, do you think I could perhaps speak with him?" Cal tried to ask but suddenly the mood in the room changed.

Kyouhukou stayed silent for a second too long before he spoke again, "No, our Supreme Beings have abandoned us, and none remain in the tomb. We have no way of reaching them," he lamented with clear sorrow in his throat.

Seeing he had touched a sore spot, Cal backtracked, "Sorry, It seems I asked something insensitive, I am sorry."

The bug shook his head, "No, it's quite alright, you did not know," he let the matter drop easily, "Besides you are doing me a huge favor right now, you see my House has grown tired of eating each other and now that you have arrived we can finally add fresh meat to our nutrients. I am sorry to say that we can only eat your limbs since the Guardians have asked for you to be captured alive, but we will make due. Now please provide sustenance for my children."

It didn't take much for Cal to put two and two together and figure out he was meant to be food for the roaches, but before he could issue the order to attack him, he quickly raised his hand to stop him, "And here I thought you were more civilized than this, we can talk so why not work something out instead of turning at each other's throats? I can bring you food from the outside, much more than you would get from trying to peck at my flesh."

The roach was stronger than everything else he had faced until now, but still not anywhere close to being a danger to me. I did not wish to fight him if possible since he did not seem like a bad person all in all. Being an animal meant that you had to eat, there was no malice in that.

He hoped he would agree to his request but he instead chuckled, "Food from the outside does sound nice, but unfortunately you are a trespasser so I cannot allow you to leave. Please don't think badly of me, I am simply doing what is natural of beasts in seeking to feed my family."

It seemed that negotiations had broken down, but still, after talking to the large cockroach for just a few sentences, he understood that the roach lacked any malice against him. Not to mention it was sentient if possible Cal wished to spare the unusual fellow.

"I don't blame you, it's only natural to want to eat fresh meat after being forced to become a cannibal," Cal never thought he would say something like that, it seemed the life of adventure was more exciting than what he had envisioned, "By the same token, I hope you don't hold it against me if I resist with all might, it's only natural to not want to die after all."

Kyouhukou chuckled at his words as if he found some macabre amusement in that statement, "No, I suppose I would not hold that against you, now my children… Feast!"

The good part of fighting someone who was cordial was that the fight never started out of nowhere, and Cal had plenty of time to think about what he should do to counter his current predicament, so when Kyouhukou signaled for the sea of roaches around him to attack, he was ready.

Bringing his seal up, Cal sensed a bit of his MP pool in the catalyst, and his incantation was released in a blinding display of raw power.

"Burn O Flame!"

The effect was instantaneous and far more monstrous than Cal had been expecting. Over a dozen pillars of fire were summoned from the ground and the scorching flames did not settle into the cylindrical shapes that they did in the game. Instead, the flames continued to spread on both the ceiling and the floor like wildfire.

Cal was shocked to see how many flames were produced by his incantation, but even more surprised when, despite the apparent heat, the flames at his feet did not cause him any damage. 'It seemed my intuition was wrong, still, I should avoid my attacks anyway just to be safe.'

Still, after a few more seconds of the ever-present inferno, the flames died down and the dark room was filled with the stench of burning insects. It wasn't pleasant in the slightest and it only served to motivate Cal to find the exit as quickly as possible.

Moving around in the room was fairly easy now that the swarm of roaches had been reduced to mere clumps of white ash. The fight had ended so fast that Cal was disappointed that he had not been able to try out more attacks, but mainly sad that he had not been able to talk with Kyouhukou more. He still had many more questions.

Talking about the large bug, his vision suddenly caught sight of a large husk that had somehow avoided being turned to ash and instead merely smoldered with most of its body gone. Kyouhukou had managed to back out of the flames the instant the incantation was cast but he was not nearly quick enough to evade the ensuing flames.

He was alive, if just barely.

'I did read that cockroaches were able to survive extended periods of time even when they lost their heads, that's impressive.'

"I'm sad things ended this way, I wish we could have spoken more," he stated, unsure if Kyouhukou could even hear him at this point, "I hope you manage to survive somehow."

It seemed that Kyouhukou had jumped towards the exit since his body was right next to a set of stairs that headed upstairs. Kyouhukou had mentioned that they were on the second floor so at best these steps would take him back to the first floor and at worst they would lead him out of the room.

Albedo swung her halberd to test her weapon, which she had not used for a long time, and she hurried her pace up to the second floor where the intruder had arrived thanks to a teleportation trap on the first floor.

In an ideal world, Kyouhukou would capture the invader without issue and they would be able to extract information from them. Though since she had ordered the rest of the guardians to protect their respective floors, and Shalltear was gathering her gear, she would have to interact with Kyouhukou in the Black Capsule. She shuddered at the thought.

She was extremely crestfallen that the Supreme Beings had all left, but that was all the more reason to protect Nazarick from the filth that would dare sully such sacred ground. What they needed right now was information on where Nazarick had ended up, and the intruder would be vital for that. It was for this reason that she had gone out of her way to suit up and come to the frontlines herself despite being the Overseer.

She could leave the job to Shalltear, but it didn't sit well with her to be idle in the throne room while someone like Shalltear would deal with such delicate matters. Additionally, although she had faith in the defenses of Nazarick, she came wearing her gear since she had no room for error.

On the off-chance that the intruder was not captured by the time she arrived at the Black Capsule, she would bring them in herself.

And in answer to her thoughts, the large doors to the Black Capsule opened below the raised platform she was currently on as light peered into the blackness to reveal an individual with dark armor. Golden accents littered the armor which seemed to have the overall motif of some kind of beast.

This gear surprised Albedo as she was able to tell from a glance that this armor was beyond the realm of most other invaders she recalled. It was no wonder that he had beaten Kyouhukou.

The unknown warrior's stance went from relaxed to guarded as he assessed Albedo, and she mentally noted that he at least had the good sense to gauge her strength if he raised his guard at her approach. She also took this time to assess him.

His frame was male, though his face was obscured by the dark helmet he wore. And aside from the armor he wore, he only had a single item on his left hand. A type of catalyst, she judged from a distance. But that soon disappeared into nothingness and was instantly replaced with a large golden shield with intricate designs, though what really caught her attention was the tree roots that seemed to be entangled through the shield.

Right after the warrior manifested a strange straight sword in his right hand. Albedo could feel a strange sense of danger from the unusual blade that seemed to be made out of some kind of sigils or runes. It shimmered slightly as if pulsing with holy magic.

"You insect, how dare you step foot inside the sacred grounds of the Great Tomb of Nazarick!" Albedo started with clear disdain in her voice, "I will extract each morsel of information out of you before I personally butcher you until there is not a single trace of you in this world."

Despite her very serious threats, the armored man did not flinch at the heavy release of pressure she was pressing onto him. Instead, he calmly began to speak, "Oh, are you the one in charge around here? I know this looks like I came here to raid this tomb but I only was curious about the language written above on the tombstones." he explained without lowering his guard, "I am sorry about the trouble I have caused, and I will find a way to make amends, but do you think there is any way you can lead me to the outside?"

Not bothering to answer such an insolent question, Albedo jumped down from her platform to get to the same level as the intruder. Her raised Halberd was enough of a hint that she was done speaking to him.

Taking this as a cue to start the fight, the warrior angled his body and launched himself forward in a burst of speed that was hard for Albedo to track, however she was expecting an attack so she was prepared to intercept him. Just as the man reached her range, he suddenly lunged diagonally while rolling on the ground in a graceful fluid motion. Taking this opportunity to strike, Albedo swung her massive weapon to where she predicted the warrior to go, only to have the warrior abruptly roll once more and completely dodge her wide swing

Having overextended herself, Albedo was unable to stop the attack that came the instant her's had missed.

Realizing she was underestimating her opponent too much, and not wishing to be the first to take damage, she activates her skill Walls of Jericho which creates a strong barrier behind her to block his attack. However, her opponent didn't stop his attack, instead, his weapon began to glow and extend several times its own length as he swung directly at her barrier.

Albedo was caught off guard when the sword bypassed her skill and bisected her as it also bypassed her own armor and struck her flesh directly. The pain of holy magic seared her flesh and it coursed through her veins as rapid venom. But just as quickly as the pain started it ended as her armor automatically absorbed the damage and the outermost layer fell to the ground.

She had been caught off-guard by his attack, but it seemed the intruder was now the one surprised by the result of his attack. Not taking the opportunity for granted she turned on her heel to face her opponent directly while also applying the momentum of her swing until her halberd.

Thanks to the warrior having just attacked, he was not quick enough to avoid the massive halberd so he instead brought up his unusual shield and used it to block the blow as he lightly hopped to let himself be carried away by the attack.

Not wanting to give him any opportunity to retreat, she quickly jumped after him, though she noted that her attack was completely absorbed by his shield. Covering half the distance in a simple leap to the warrior, she was forced to raise her guard as he suddenly jumped back to meet her head-on. The result of his interception was messy as they clashed mid-air and were both thrown backward with enough force to crash through the wall behind them.

Albedo was quick on her feet and jump out of her position even though she could not see much thanks to the dust that had been picked up from their collision against the environment. It was not a second too late as from the veil of dust, his sword was thrust to where she just had been.

Albedo gained enough distance to observe the man step out of the cloud of dust still unharmed. Still, this development was confusing for her. It was true that Albedo was not a warrior at heart, but she still had enough experience to gauge the strength and skill of her opponents, but she was having a hard time figuring out this one. For starters, he had enough physical strength to match even her own, which was nothing to sneeze at, and his skills with his weapon did command a certain level of respect, but even still she felt she was more skilled than him. She surely was.

'So how is pulling this off?'

"Are you sure you can't just let me go? I don't really want to fight you.." He let out with no hint of lies or malice, still, Albedo ignored his question and lunged forward. He responded by running at her while carrying himself low to the ground. Charging her weapon overhead, Albedo swung down at the man with all her might, but the warrior managed to snake his way around her attack to avoid damage even as the entire floor was cracked due to her strength.

Even though Albedo considered the way he dodged, by rolling on the ground like an insect, to be the dirtiest part of his fighting style, she could not help but notice that there was a certain intricate charm to using his whole body to fight and avoid attacks. He continued to dodge and weave through her attacks using his own body as bait to force her to continue to unleash new attacks from different angles.

His fighting style was beyond strange, and she could not understand the purpose behind his actions. He avoided interacting with her attacks in any way when he could, even when he had a good chance to block he would rather lose ground and retreat by ducking, rolling, and jumping out of the way. If she was any less of a warrior she might think him a coward, but he wasn't. She was sure of that, during this whole encounter she could not detect a single shred of fear in him. No, this was certainly a stratagem of some kind, there was no doubt.

Her tactical mind soon caught up to his strategy.

He was analyzing her fighting style. Poking and probing at her guard to test her range, moveset, agility, mobility, strength, and strategy. He was looking for patterns to exploit, the timing of her attacks, and the gaps in her defense. He was learning everything about her fighting style over the course of one fight. Even now he was timing his dodges at the very last second to ensure that wasted fewer and fewer movements as the fight went on.

Still, in order to pull something like this off, he had to constantly put himself in danger of being struck and he had already been forced to block on several occasions. To throw yourself into a meatgrinder in order to learn where the thousands of blades were inside, was what Albedo likened his fighting style to. A suicidal mindset that allowed for only victory or defeat.

In a perfect world where one could come back to life after being killed and try to fight once again, this fighting style would be optimal, but in the real world, it was beyond reckless. Each strike was a gamble with his life on the line, and although it would not be strange to win that gamble every once in a while, to completely rely on that tactic as a form of fighting was idiotic to the highest degree.

Still, it was working she begrudgingly had to admit.

With each passing second, she could feel that his skills which she had initially found lacking were quickly approaching her own. With each attack she released he was dodging with less and less of a margin for error, leaving him with more time to properly retaliate. As the fight progressed Albedo could feel herself being pushed to a back foot. The dark warrior was exploiting her attack timings with ease, closing the distance without worry as he continued to dodge her perfectly even at close range, and worst of all, he was starting to predict what attack she would be using next before she even started them.

'I'm still more skilled than this fighter, but his adaptability is off the charts!'

By now it was obvious to Albedo that the more the fight dragged on, the more his opponent would be at an advantage. Sure she could also wait for Shalltear to arrive, she was sure that the two of them would be more than a match for the invader, but she could not accept that. It would be, in some way, accepting defeat against a human. To admit that this warrior, a lower lifeform, was better than her. 'Never.' The only way she would win is to end the fight as quickly as possible.

Before he got the opportunity to study her further, she would go all out and finish things now. Using a swing to force him to dodge once again, she used what little distance he gave her and took a leap backward expecting him to follow her momevents closely as he had before. Seeing him dash forward to maintain the distance, she forced her wings to extend and took to the air to create further distance.

For the first time in the fight, the warrior was unable to close the distance between them as she flew higher and higher. Knowing that using this advantage to its utmost limit was her best chance of ending the fight, she used all her momentum and might to dive down as she swung down her halberd at blinding speeds.

However her opponent was waiting for her to overextend herself like this, and just before her attack connected, he instantly switched his shield with a large thumb-like tombstone.

Albedo's mind raced at his actions. 'It's too late to stop my attack now. Should I even try to stop it? He's not trying to dodge at all…'

Unlike his previous behavior of trying to avoid all types of attacks at any cost, this time the warrior hunkered down behind his greatshield as he prepared to receive her attack.

"DIE!"

Already forgetting any thought of keeping the intruder alive for interrogation, Albedo swung down with enough force to destroy a mountain. However, as her halberd made contact with the shield, she was caught off guard as the full impact was absorbed by his defense and the warrior did not even budge from his position.

'Huh? Did his shield really absorb all that force? But how?'

It was too late to consider these things as her balance was broken due to her repelled attack, and to make matters worse, the warrior quickly dismissed his shield, and once again his sword glowed brightly as it expended.

'I can't dodge!'

The warrior managed to swing rapidly at her defenseless form and connect two of his attacks before she managed to use her wings to throw herself backward. Her own push sent her rolling on the ground with much less grace than her opponent, but she could not bring herself to care about that as holy magic burn her insides for but a moment before the damage was transferred into her armor.

First, the second layer of her armor fell to absorb his first strike, which left her with a thin form-fitting liquid metal armor, but that too was destroyed as the damage from the second attack was nullified.

Her opponent did not intend to let her stumble go to waste and he had followed her closely as she rolled away. Albedo could only look up as the moment her last layer of armor was destroyed and she laid there bare and defenseless, a blade made of ciphers inches away from her throat.

But it stopped. Or rather the warrior stopped his attack before it could connect.

He seemed to analyze her vulnerable position for an instant before pulling his sword away as though he had no intention of fighting her any further.

'Is he taking pity on me? On ME!? I haven't lost yet, I can still transform.'

Albedo's anger bubbled at both her attacker and herself for being pushed into such a position, and despite knowing that being forced to transform to fight a human was a form of defeat by itself, she readied to reveal her true form.

However, both she and the unnamed warrior were caught off guard when a red blur shot out of the corner of her eye and delivered a devastating blow directly to the armored head of the dark warrior who had slightly lowered his guard.

Albedo's eyes were quick enough to see a rather familiar lance knock off the helmet of the intruder as he was sent away flying from the blow. Shalltear had finally arrived.

The figure of her fellow Nazarick denizen stood in front of her as if to protect her. Normally she might tease the Overseer for having trouble fighting, but she was quickly able to understand that this particular intruder was a serious threat and there was no room for jokes.

Not too far from them, the warrior was on his knees as he stared at his helmet which had been knocked off his head. Blood began to drip down his face as he got up, clearly dazed from the attack.

Albedo hated that it was Shalltear who managed to seriously hurt the intruder before her, but she knew that there was no time to complain about such things now. Even without her armor, she could still support Shalltear and the intruder would not be able to stand against them both.

But as if reading her mind, the warrior pulled out a strange bell and rung it as five spectral summons appeared in front of him with greatshields as if to protect their master.

"Foolish!"

Shalltear quickly sprung forward to decimate the new additions to the fight, and true enough she was able to tear through them with ease as a single strike from her lance was enough to make them dissipate.

Getting up from her position, Albedo focused her attention on the warrior once more but was surprised when she saw him pull out yet another item. She wasn't able to tell what it was but judging from his stance, she did not think he was looking to fight anymore.

He crushed the item in his hand and he was enveloped by a golden light. Understanding that he was trying to escape, Albedo used all the power in her legs to throw herself forward, 'You aren't getting away after all this!'

She crossed the distance in less than a second, but as her outstretched hands reached out to touch the fading figure she was filled with anger when she merely passed through him, as though he was already gone.

Shalltear kept her guard up as she was done with the spectral summons, but Albedo lowered hers. She knew that the intruder was completely gone.

'FUCK! How dare he, a lower lifeform, push me to such an extent! I won't rest until he's chained up on his knees begging for my mercy!'

Although Albedo and Shalltear had been able to repel the intruder on the second floor of Nazarick, she did not feel like she could call this outcome a victory at all.

AN: Quick disclaimers here. I finished playing Elden Ring several months ago, haven't read the Overlord light novels in years, and don't use an outline for writing. This means that I will definitely get some things wrong with canon on both series (though I do check the wiki for both series) but honestly just run with it (unless it's something major).

That being said some things might seem like a mistake, but I am making conscious decisions with the narrative. A prime example is Cal using the Memory of Grace to escape from Nazarick even though the tomb has protection against teleportation. So keep that in mind.

Lastly, my editor is the free version of Grammarly so if you find an issue take it up with them (or point them out to me so I can fix it sometime later.) Thanks for reading!