Chapter 2: Knight in Darkened Armor

Suddenly appearing in a familiar grassy plain, Cal allowed himself one second to relax as he felt more blood dripping down his face. The sudden sucker punch had caused his brain to rattle around his skull a bit too much for his liking, but he couldn't complain too much since he let down his guard during his fight with the winged woman.

"That wasn't romantic at all…"

He could not help but feel dejected after his long sought-after adventure ended on such a sour note. He thought he would brave into an unknown abandoned tomb to fight some skeletons and let the dead rest in peace while he found out why there were signs of a language from his old world in the building. Instead, he found out that not only was the tomb not abandoned, but he was an intruder taking out defenses while also somehow managing to beat the clothes off a woman who was trying to repel him.

Adding insult to injury he ended up running away from the fight.

Though he didn't feel so bad about having to run away. From the blow he received to the head Cal could tell that his new opponent was not a pushover at all. He didn't like his odds against her while the other woman was still able to fight, even if she didn't have her armor on.

The tomb also had more depth than he had anticipated, and he felt that if he encountered such strong people right off the bat, there were surely more beings with similar or greater strength further into the tomb. He was just unprepared for such a challenge.

'Still, there is something about that tomb that connects to my old world… I can't explore it right away but I'll keep a mental note about the place for now.'

Pulling out a Flask of Crimson Tears, he chugged down the red liquid and he felt an immediate effect as the blow to his head disappeared and his wounds closed as though he had never been injured in the first place.

"I didn't want to use these without knowing how to replenish them first but I can't play things too safe now that I can't respawn," he said as he chugged down a Flask of Cerulean Tears to restore the MP he had wasted in the fight, "I'm just glad that the Memory of Grace brought me out of the tomb, otherwise I would have had to fight my way out."

Cal smiled as he once again combed over his inventory, looking for useful items. Even though he seemed relieved that the Memory of Grace had worked, he was not really surprised that it did but rather just happy it brought him to where he first woke up.

When he had first looked over his inventory he noticed that his ring to summon Torrent was gone, but upon closer inspection, he also noted that every single item used for multiplayer was missing as well. As if by design, every item that was not removed from his inventory was meant to have some use for him, otherwise why remove things like the Tarnished's Furled Finger in the first place?

The only real question in his mind was where exactly he would appear if he had not seen a site of Grace since he awoke in this world.

"Still, now is not the time for these questions," he said to no one in particular as he stood up and dusted himself off, "For now let's head off in the opposite direction of the tomb, I don't want them coming out to chase after me in retaliation."

Making sure that his helmet had been called back to his inventory, he mentally summoned it back into the real world as it reappeared on his head.

Trekking down into a forest Cal could not help but think back on what he had just experienced. With each step into this new world, Cal was slowly coming to terms with the fact that this was his reality now. Although he had been thinking about things in a slightly childish way, he was beginning to realize that things were not a game at all.

He was thinking about his new body as the body of his Elden Ring avatar, but that was only creating an unhealthy distance from what was actually true; this new body was his real body, not a game character. Things were not like Elden Ring, and that didn't just apply to his enhanced items and abilities, but to everything around him.

In Elden Ring, there was no way for an enemy to knock off a piece of your armor, no matter how strong they hit you. It was a silly example, he thought, but it posed a real question; if this was his new reality then how would he handle hostile humans?

In a game, it was easy to kill humans and other intelligent life, even if he killed millions he would not feel a single shred of remorse since they were not real. And even when he was fighting the skeletons in the tomb he continued to feel the same way, but then he encountered Kyouhukou.

He was certainly intelligent life that he could speak and exchange words with, though he was far from being human in Cal's eyes. It was because of this that he decided to spare the creature even though he had ample opportunity to kill him.

Things only got worse when that female warrior appeared. Although he had no trouble fighting her, when she was on the ground, defenseless, he hesitated to strike her again. She was far too human for Cal to feel comfortable killing her.

It was that hesitation that ended up getting him hurt.

He wasn't a saint however, he would like to think so, but he knew himself better than to entertain the idea. If it really came down to it, and he had no choice but to kill someone to save his own skin, he would begrudgingly pull the trigger.

On the other hand, he certainly did not wish to see innocent people being hurt for no reason. That meant he would go out of his way to help those he could, that was the least he could do.

'Well hopefully there won't come a time where any of this will have to be put into practice,' he thought as he continued to walk into a dense leafy forest.

Yet as if to put his moral compass to the test, his ears picked up on distant screaming coming from further in the forest. For Cal, a man who had lived the majority of his life in the comfort of modern luxury afforded to him by the protective veil of society, it was a noise that was beyond comprehension; it was a death shout.

Letting his body move on instinct, he released himself into a full sprint as he tore through low-hanging branches with ease thanks to the surprising speed he could achieve despite his heavy armor.

Thanks to his speed Cal was able to quickly replace the forest that surrounded him with the sight of a small village from, what he could only assume to be, medieval times.

Already having a feeling that the setting would be something like that, he instead focused on what actually mattered; the slaughter.

Knowing that jumping into a situation without actually knowing what's going on can more often than not lead to even more problems, he took a second to analyze what he was looking at before acting.

At a glance he could see two parties in the conflict, one was a group of armored knights and the other was defenseless villagers. The villagers had no weapons or other ways to defend themselves from the attack, while the knights were seemingly fully equipped to engage in battle. It was easy for Cal to determine the aggressor of the conflict.

His contemplation lasted only half a second, but it was enough for another villager to be slain by the knights.

'I'll think about this later, I need to act!'

The closest knights to him had just broken into a house and the screams that came from within were enough to make Cal choose his first target. Even though the small house was still nearly one hundred feet away from him, a single leap was enough to cover the distance in an instance.

Expertly landing in front of the now busted wooden door, Cal peered into the home and felt his blood boiling in seething anger. A family, consisting of a father, mother, and two daughters were being assaulted by what he could only consider a purging as the knights pulled the helpless father out of the house by his hair as his family huddled in a corner.

Already trusting his sixth sense regarding dangerous opponents, Cal correctly assessed that no one here posed him any real threat. Unlike the enemies he faced back in the tomb, he could not see these knights even put a scratch on his armor.

While that was a good thing, it also propped up complications, he was unsure how much he needed to hold back against them to make sure they didn't end up dead. By now he was able to understand that his body was that of a superhuman, and these knights were closer to normal humans, undoubtedly his swords would butcher them without issue.

Jumping into danger to save people was one thing, but starting to massacre a group of knights was a completely different thing. Sure he could argue that they deserved to die since they themselves were massacring a village, but would the world accept that?

Aside from morality, there was the issue of legality. He had no idea how the law worked around here, so he had no way of knowing of killing these knights would also make him a criminal to be hunted down by all the forces of the land. He could unknowingly bring himself trouble by killing these people carelessly.

Finally, killing someone was a permanent thing as far as he was concerned. Once he killed someone, there was likely no easy way to undo that damage. It would be better to simply knock them out and subdue them for now, and decide on a fair punishment after he got all the facts. If that fair punishment was the death penalty, then he would not complain.

'However, for now, let's be non-lethal… hopefully.'

The two knights that were dragging the husband out of the house had barely enough time to register that a knight in dark armor had blocked their way out before two clawed hands reached out to grip their helmets with tremendous strength.

"Huh- Who are-"

The knight's surprise was silenced when he was pushed against the helmet of his nearby companion. The impact was so strong he managed to feel his head bounce around the hard metal insides of his helmet as his vision began to blur.

His fellow knight faired no better from the blow and both men dropped down limp on the ground.

Both the remaining two knights in the house and the family could only stare in shock at the impromptu savior that had taken out two knights while being unarmed.

Still, the knights were trained to handle opposition and they managed to gather themselves enough to know they had to retaliate. With a war cry, the knight furthest away from the shaking little girls lunged at the unarmed newcomer with a wide swing of his sword, and although he wasn't completely used to the swords used by Baharuth knights, he felt confident in his skills to engage his opponent.

Cal watched the incoming attack with a clear and calm mind. It was a strange thing for him, but to his enhanced senses, the sword was moving far too slow to actually have a chance to hit him. It was the first time Cal felt that his power was intoxicating and somehow overwhelming as if he could do anything he wanted. He sensed that he could easily choose to reach out at the incoming sharp edge of the blade and simply stop it from moving forward with but the smallest effort of his finger.

Before he knew it, Cal had stretched out his hand to meet the incoming attack and with the precision of a god, his index finger intercepted the path of the blade perfectly. When the attack made contact it was difficult for Cal to notice it since it could not make his finger budge even in the slightest.

However, things were different for the Slane Theocracy soldier in disguise. The moment his attack connected he felt as though he had just struck a mountain with all his strength and his own power had been unable to pass onto the unknown warrior so it was forced back up his arms.

Feeling his arms grow numb from the ricocheting energy, he missed the open palm that struck his chest with enough force to knock the wind out of his chest. The pain was so overwhelming that his nervous system was overloaded from the stress which soon left him unconscious on the ground next to the other knights.

The last remaining knight had the good sense to reach out to the older daughter in hopes of getting a hostage, but Cal didn't entertain the idea and instead moved forward in a blur of speed to strike his solar plexus with a light tap of his fist. Expectantly, the blow was more than enough to deal with the offending individual as he was sent flying into the nearby wall.

It had only been five seconds since Cal arrived at the house to take out the four knights present, but he was not satisfied with the results. Five seconds were more than enough for other knights in the village to slay more people, he needed a more efficient method.

Enri Emmot had just returned from her trip into the forest with a basket full of valuable herbs and flowers, which were the main source of income for Carne Village when she stumbled upon a horrific sight.

Peering from the forest, Enri was forced to witness the people of Carne Village being attacked by knights she could only assume to be from the Baharuth Empire. The sight of her fellow villagers being slashed and butchered like animals made her sick and she felt bile threaten to rise up her throat.

Carne Village was a small community with little to no sources of income and commerce. It was thanks to this that the village had to be self-sufficient and rely on each other for everyday life. Although Enri had a close bond with her parents and her little sister, Nemu, she considered everyone in her village to be part of her family as well. The people that were being killed in front of her weren't strangers, they were her friends.

'I need to get back home!'

It would have been wise to run away into the forest where she could hide. She was used to being in the forest thanks to her job, which meant she would have no problem finding food and shelter. She could hide there long enough to survive this attack, but that thought never crossed her mind. Her thoughts lingered on her family, and she could not leave unless she was with them.

Running through the chaos of the village that was already going up in flames, she steeled her resolve as she avoided running into any knights by staying away from the cries for help and the screams.

Thanks to the adrenaline pumping through her body she was able to reach her home despite her fear, but as she approached the door she felt a heavy thought weight down her steps. What would happen if she opened this door only to come face to face with her dead family? The fear of such a possibility stopped her dead in her tracks. She knew that this wasn't the time for such a thing, but she could not help thinking this way.

Pressed by the need to know the fate of her family, for better or worse, and the sounds of the villagers dying, she pushed the door open with heavy hands.

"Enri!"

Tears almost fell down her face as her mother called out to her as she clutched Nemu close to her chest. Her father was not too far from the door, and judging by the pitchfork he was holding she could guess he was waiting by the door in case the knights came.

'Thank the Gods!'

"Father! Mother! We need to get out here, the whole village is under attack!"

Her father lowered his makeshift weapon as he took her into a tight hug, "I know Enri, we are all ready to leave but we didn't want to leave the house without you," he explained with relief in his voice.

His words caused Enri to feel some guilt, though she had no way of knowing that something like this would happen when she left to collect herbs, she still felt bad for putting her family in potential danger. Still, a sense of hope began to grow in her chest.

They were all together now so they could make a run for it to the forest and wait for things to calm down before finding a new home. For a single moment, Enri allowed herself that happy fantasy. However, this world was not kind enough to allow such a thing and the door behind her creaked open as a knight poked his head in with a grin on his face.

The large shadow cast by the knight completely covered Enri, and the sight alone of this intruder was enough to freeze her body in place. Feeling that small hope die Enri, along with Nemu let out an involuntary scream as her father jumped into action as he used his body to push the door shut in order to buy them some time.

"Mari, get them out of here!" he shouted as he used all his strength to hold the door closed, but even at a glance Enri could tell that he would not be able to hold on for much longer, they had no time.

"Enri! Come quick!"

Feeling her mother pull her arm away towards the back exit, Enri felt her feet grow heavy as she wondered if she could really leave her dad here to die. She had no delusion that she would be of any help and that her father was giving his life away to save them, but she still found it impossible to leave her father to die alone.

This hesitation proved to be her undoing as the door was busted down with a strong kick from the hostile knights outside, and in an instant four knights had poured into her home, each holding a sword and no empathy in their eyes.

Enri could tell that they were here to kill them all, they weren't after money or their bodies, no they were simply here to kill them without any hope of discussion or mercy. It was over.

Her brave father tried to impale the first knight with his pitchfork with a thrust attack, but the Baharuth knight easily disarmed him with the flick of his sword. It was only natural, no matter how desperately her father wished to help, he was not trained to fight at all.

Her father received a heavy punch to his gut as thanks for his efforts and he fell to his knees as he gasped for air.

Pulling him by the hair the knight started barking orders to the others, "Pull them all out, I want their bodies in the center of the village," he roughly dragged her father along the ground as if he were nothing more than a rabid beast.

'Oh no! They're going to kill us, it's all my fault…'

Enri wanted to apologize for freezing up and letting her father's sacrifice be in vain but instead, she felt her mother pull her close along with Nemu as they huddled into a corner. It was the end for them. There were so many things that ended up going badly but the one thing Enri lamented was the fact that not even Nemu managed to escape.

Closing her eyes shut, she awaited the sharp blades to pierce her flesh.

Fear began to build up as she heard the men step closer and closer to her, but suddenly their encroaching footsteps seized and for a brief second all she could hear was silence. That moment of silence dragged on for a second too long but was interrupted by the distinct sound of clanging metal.

Gathering the courage to open her eyes, Enri was shocked to see another armored knight appear in her home. However, something was distinctly different about this one compared to the other men, and she did not just mean his dark armor.

While the other knights certainly had a terrifying presence, when they stood in front of this new warrior they seemed to be completely dwarfed and insignificant. Enri did not understand what she was seeing or who this new person was, but the two knocked-out knights at his feet told her that at the very least these two parties were not allies.

The next seconds passed in a blur of motion, but the dark knight's display of strength was ingrained in her mind.

The knight closest to him jumped forward and swung his sword with all his might, but Enri, along with everyone else in the house was stunned when the attack was stopped by the strength of a single finger alone. The hostile knight had no time to respond before he was struck with an open palm and he collapsed on the spot after letting out a sound that was more suited for a dying beast rather than a man.

It was at that moment that Enri noticed that her savior had come to the fight without any weapons to defend himself. She briefly contemplated passing her father's pitchfork, for now, but in the next moment, the dark warrior disappeared from her vision and reappeared directly next to her as he moved to intercept the last remaining knight from grabbing her.

Letting go of a breath she did not release she had been holding on to, Enri felt that small hope in her chest reignite. She had never been on such a rollercoaster of emotions, which is why despite the grim situation she could not help but let a small smile grow on her face.

'I don't understand what's going on, but we're safe.'

Her father managed to gather his mind before her, and so he quickly let out a sincere thanks, "I- Thank you! Really, thank you so much for helping us!" his voice was filled with anguish and tears.

At the weakness in her father's voice, Enri could not help but release the tears she was holding back as well. She took some solace that she was not alone as both her mother and sister began to let tears stream down their faces.

The new stranger only gave them a small nod as a response.

After the small nod, the warrior went silent, even as the screams outside continued to shout for help.

For a second Enri wanted to ask the warrior why he was merely standing there without moving, but she refrained. She had no right to question him when he had saved without obligation.

Still, she could not help but ponder why her savior remained so silent as if deep in thought. Her curiosity did not go unanswered for long as a small talisman appeared in the warrior's left hand.

The small talisman was a rather accurate depiction of a face with its eyes gouged out. It gave Enri a weird vibe, so she refrained from looking at it anymore and opted to instead peer into the helmet of the unknown man.

To her surprise, she found that he was staring right back at her with keen eyes, almost as if he was looking for something on her face.

Feeling the situation coming awkward, she timidly voiced her thoughts, "Is something the matter?"

He only stared back in response to her question, his gaze still searching for something, but when he didn't find what he was looking for he started to walk away as he spoke to no one in particular, "Stay inside until I say it's safe to walk out."

"Of course!" her father responded as he picked up his pitchfork, as if once again ready to fight should the need arise.

Enri could not help but feel curious as to what the dark warrior was going to do so she ran to the window and stared at the figure of her savior as he walked further into the village. It was then she noticed that the shouts of fighting and screams had completely stopped resonating in the village. Everything was utterly silent.

Then came the rumbling of marching feet, but unlike the graceful uniform march of an army, this sounded more like a stamping mob. The sound only grew louder and louder until a large group of knights came running at full speed towards the warrior.

Something was wrong with the knights, Enri could tell that much. Gone was the systematic approach they used to slaughter her fellow villagers, in its stead was a wave of seething anger that held no room for a clear mind. Shouting in rage, the large mob barreled forward without a second thought.

Turning her attention back to the warrior she was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a rather large and strange torch in his hand. He had done something similar with the talisman so the fact that it came out of nowhere was not really what surprised her, but rather how the torch itself looked.

It was much larger than the torches used in the village, and far more intricate as well. Typically torches are just sticks with a piece of cloth attached to the end, but this one seemed to be made out of a piece of sculpted wood. The part that really drew her attention, however, was the mesmerizing purple flames that gently burned at the top of the torch.

Wondering what the man expected to do with such a thing, Enri and the rest of her family watched on with anxiety clear on their face. They were happy that they had been saved by this man, but if he died here then that would be that for them.

As the mob neared the man, he raised the torch up above his head and with the flick of his wrist he let out a large number of flames that seemed to slowly float in the air over the large group of men. If the sea of purple flames were not confusing enough, Enri, along with the rest of the village was at a loss when every single knight started to lose steam and slowly come to a halt.

Their steps were shaky and their bodies shook as they tried to gain their balance, but soon enough they all began to drop to the ground with drowsy eyes. Every single knight in front of the dark warrior had fallen asleep.

'Using Sabriri's Woe and St. Trina's Torch turned out to be rather effective,' Cal thought as he saw every single knight fall asleep thanks to his weapon skill Fires of Slumber.

He could have stopped every single knight physically as he had done to the first four he encountered but that would take too long since he was only one man, and that was when he had come up with the idea of attracting every single enemy in the area with Sabriri's Woe and inducing sleep to them when they bunched up.

He worried that the villagers would also turn hostile with the talisman out, but after seeing the reaction from one of the girls he saved, he judged that it would be alright. Maybe it was because he didn't consider the villagers his enemies, or the other way around but he was happy it worked out for the best. Even if the villagers ended up being affected then he could still put everyone to sleep and just tie up the knights while he waited for everyone to wake up.

Looking around he spotted scared villagers looking at him with confusion, and around them the bodies of several dozens of people dead on the ground. Cal had never seen such bloodshed in the real world and he lamented he didn't come here before visiting the tomb, he could have done much more for these people.

Looking at the nearest man, Cal spoke up, "Go gather some rope to tie these people up, they are only asleep for now."

Quickly grasping the situation, every abled person began to scramble to find a rope to restrain the knights.

Seeing that many women and children were still frozen in fear while holding their young, Cal decided to ease up the mood by declaring their victory, some things needed to be vocalized before they registered, especially life and death situations, "Please be at ease, you are safe now… I won't let any danger come to you."

A few people snapped out of their stupor and slowly began to let relief come to them as they hugged their children and smiled at being saved. Others didn't budge but Cal didn't press the issue, the villagers were safe and that was all that mattered for now.

Thanks to the quick work of the villagers, the thirty or so knights were tied up and stripped of their armor and weapons.

The whole town gathered in the center of the village where all the prisoners were now being kept, though there were some people who had survived their injuries and were being treated elsewhere in the village.

The tension was palpable, and Cal felt that he would deal with that in a moment but for now, he needed information from the knights.

"So you're saying that these men attacked your village unprovoked?" he asked the villain chieftain, the man who happened to be the man he had originally saved along with his family.

He nodded in affirmation, "Well yes, perhaps the Kingdom might have done something to provoke the Empire, but our small village tends to keep to itself and we have never engaged in conflict with anyone."

Cal had never been much of a people person, but he believed the man, after all, there wasn't even a single weapon in the village with which they might have defended themselves, much less attack others.

That only left the knights, it had only been roughly fifteen minutes since they passed out and Cal could feel that they might sleep for longer so he threw a bucket of water on the face of one of the knights.

The sudden splash jolted the man awake, and he quickly found his moments restricted by the rope around his hands and feet. He scanned the surroundings before quickly settling on Cal. He eyed him up for a minute but stayed silent.

"Are you planning on explaining yourself? Or will you offer no defense?" Cal asked without much interest. He knew these people attacked without good reason, or rather, his intuition told him so.

"What's the point of asking them questions!? Let's just kill them!"

Cal heard a man from the village shout and dozens of mummers of agreement. Cal felt the tension rise again, but he remained calm and he turned to face the villagers, "I interfered in this conflict without any knowledge of what is going on, I helped you all out because I thought you were all the victims. I heard your side of the story, so as a third party it's only fair I hear their side too."

Cal held himself with confidence, and even though the villagers had more protests, they couldn't oppose Cal too much after how much he had helped them.

"If you answer my questions I promise I won't harm you," Cal stated much to the groans of the villagers behind him.

"And I'm supposed to believe you? I don't even know you," the knight he was speaking to answered with venom in his voice.

"You don't have a choice," Cal stated flatly.

The knight really didn't have many options at this point, and giving out information was likely the best thing he could do to ensure his safety.

Thinking over his options once more, the knight spoke up again, venom still lingering in his words, "If I answer your questions, you promise not to harm me or my comrades?"

"I do," Cal answered honestly.

"Then ask away," he spat out.

Cal really didn't need much information, and most of it would be lost on him anyway since he didn't know the lay of the land. Both parties had spoken about a kingdom and an empire, and this village happened to be near the border of both countries. Cal knew nothing of this so asking for information was not exactly going to help him much, still, he wanted some basic answers.

"Why did you attack this village which has no guards or means of defense?"

Without any pause, the knight answered, "We attacked it because our higher-ups told us to attack it, we are soldiers and our job is to do what our superiors tell us."

Cal frowned at this statement, he could tell that this was both a lie and a truth, "Anything else you want to add to that answer?" he asked hoping the man would be more truthful this time.

"What else is there to say?" the knight denied his hope and Cal's mood soured.

Knowing he would not get anywhere with his current information and that the knights would not be very helpful in that department either, he decided to leave the matter in the hands of those with the proper knowledge.

"I see, then I have no more questions," he said while walking away from the knights.

The knight was clearly not expecting him to give up so easily and walk away, "Wait, that's all you want to ask? What about your promise!?"

Cal turned around to face the knight, "There's no point in asking you questions if you will refuse to be honest with me, and I will keep my promise and not harm you," he said which brought a smile to the face of the knight, "I never had any intention to hurt you, even if you didn't answer my question, after all, I have no right to lay down judgment on you since you didn't wrong me."

That last sentence wiped the smile off the knight's face, he was beginning to understand his implication.

"The same can't be said for the people of this village," he said as he looked over to the grieving and seething faces of the surviving villagers, "I won't harm you since I have no need to, I will let those you have wronged decide your judgment."

The realization of his words struck both the knight and the villagers with equal emotions of emotion, one of dread and one of righteous anger.

"Please wait! I was only following orders, I swear I'm not lying! Please listen!"

However, Cal had already stopped paying attention as he headed out away from the swarming mob that soon began to pick up rocks and swords to inflict their revenge.

Cal knew that stoning was one of the worst ways to die so he hoped that the villagers would use the swords if possible but he decided not to interfere in the process at all.

'This world is just crazy,' he thought as he did his best to ignore the anguished screams of the knights who were waking up to stones and swords. He understood that the death penalty was something that existed even in his old world, but the humane methods he thought about like the lethal injection were much more humane than what was happening only a few yards away.

Still, he was being genuine when he said that he had not been affected by the actions of the knights so he had no moral obligation to deal out some type of personal justice when the party affected was right here. Even though he had imposed himself into the situation, at the end of the day he was an outsider in more ways than one.

The spectacle took a little longer than he had expected, whether that was from him overestimating the effectiveness of stoning or from the villagers taking their time, he was unsure.

"Oh, mister knight, sorry you had to be here for that," the man who Cal now recognized as the chieftain, spoke with the rest of the village gathered behind him, "There aren't enough thanks we can afford you for the kindness you have shown us, we owe you a great debt."

Cal was not used to being seen with such admiration and thanks, he had played the role of a hero countless times in games, but it was a whole new experience in the real world. He certainly didn't dislike it.

Standing up to face the Chieftain, Cal spoke as he extended his hand in greeting, "You can call me Cal, and you owe me nothing since I only did what I believed to be right."

Slightly overwhelmed by Cal's denial of gratitude, the Chieftain remember he had yet to introduce himself, "Oh. that's right, forgive me for my late introduction my name is Kent Emmot, and I insist we pay you back in some way. We are a small village with not many resources, but even we have our own pride, so we can't just let our savior go without expressing our sincere thanks in some way."

Cal wasn't in such desperate need that he would be alright with taking anything from such a small village, especially after they had been attacked so brutally. If he needed money then he was sure that there would be much better candidates to pursue payments from, but then a thought entered his head, was money all that you could ask for?

Even though he knew this was real life, he was still thinking about some things like a game, such things as rewards for completing quests. He didn't like the idea of taking money from the village, but he was in dire need of information about the world.

"Well, if you insist then perhaps you could answer some questions for me? I must admit that I am rather lost," he let out while scratching the back of his helmet sheepishly.

"Yes, that's no problem!" Kent exclaimed, he seemed rather happy to be of any help, "Please come to my home, you can ask me anything while you enjoy a meal from my wife. I assure you that her cooking is the best in the village."

"Then please lead the way."

The short walk back to the chief's home was filled with the villagers keeping their distance but still bowing respectfully while thanking him when he passed by. While they seemed genuinely thankful for his intervention, they also were obviously cautious around him.

"Please take a seat, you can ask me anything while we wait," Kent said as he pointed to a table in the center of his living room.

Taking a seat Cal had time to assess the damage that was done to the house. The door had been busted down, and some decorations had fallen to the floor, but other than that the house was in good condition compared to some others which had been burned down.

Noticing his gaze Kent spoke up while bowing, "Sorry we can't host you in a better place, but it's the best we can do for now."

"It's fine, I don't mind, so can we start? I only have a few questions to ask of you," he said with hidden excitement. This was his chance to get information about where he was and what kind of world was waiting for him beyond this forest.

"Please ask away."

"Sebas give us the new status report," Albedo stated, her mood clearly lacking any joviality.

It had not been that long since they had been invaded by a lone warrior, and although Albedo and Shalltear had managed to repel him, the entire tomb had gone into lockdown with high security on every floor.

Every floor guarding, with the exception of Victim and Gargantua, was currently tense as they discussed their next actions in regard to the phenomenon they had been affected with along with the matter of the unknown intruder.

"With the use of much more efficient scouts, we have managed to determine that the immediate land surrounding the Great Tomb of Nazarick is free from any other intelligent life and monsters," he spoke with a serious tone, "Additionally, there have been no further sightings of the warrior named Cal, though we have not lowered our guard and our scouts are not straying far from the perimeter you have recommended."

"Cal? How did we manage to figure out the intruder's name?" asked Demiurge, who was meticulously taking notes regarding everything reported.

Sebas continued to explain, "Yes, we managed to heal Kyouhukou, and he has reported his experience with the intruder, but it would be better for him to explain the situation himself."

Taking his cue, the large cockroach entered the room as some of the homunculus maids opened the large doors for him.

Albedo could feel her skin crawl at the sight of the large bug, but she took some solace that Shalltear shared the same reaction.

"Yes, I already explained what happened when I interacted with the intruder but reiterating the events will be faster than reading the report," he started as all the eyes in the room focused on him, "I didn't have too much of a conversation with him but I was able to gather a few things from the words we exchanged, namely, his name, Cal."

"He introduced himself to you?" asked Demiurge with slight interest.

Nodding, Kyouhukou continued, "Yes, we had a cordial conversation until I decided to attack him, but he seemed surprised to learn that he was intruding into an inhabited place. He was under the impression that this place was abandoned judging by the undead that was pouring out from the first floor. More importantly, he mentioned an interest in the language found above in the tombstones. He said that they were written in Japanese and that my name was Japanese. When I said that both my name and the writing on the tombstones were created by our Supreme Beings, he expressed an interest in speaking with them."

"Japanese!? That's the language of our Supreme Beings, he could understand it?" Shalltear asked with disbelief.

"He showed an interest in the language of the Supreme Beings, and with the context on his strength, could there be a connection?" Cocytus asked calmly but was met with a harsh reproach.

"What are you trying to insinuate, Cocytus? That this rogue is in some form related to the Supreme Beings?" Shalltear asked with malice dripping down her mouth.

She wasn't alone as the likes of Aura, Albedo, and Sebas shared the same disbelief at his words.

"Nothing to that extend, but I find it unusual that a being which could soundly fight Albedo would appear just as the Great Tomb of Nazarick was moved and show an interest in the language of the Supreme Beings," Cocytus explained without losing his cool at the accusation he received.

"No, I agree," Demiurge came to his aid, "We can't deny that there is some connection there, but this will only complicate things further, Albedo what are our next steps in light of this new information?"

Albedo frowned at this question.

She was the Overseer of the Floor Guardians, so the interim leader while the Supreme Beings were absent, but she did not doubt that the other Guardians would put her to the test to ensure she was fit to be in charge.

Still, she knew what she had to do.

"It's true that we cannot simply ignore the possible connection this intruder, Cal, may have to the Supreme Beings so our highest priority is to capture him alive," she stated while everyone in the room nodded in agreement, "However until we discover if Cal's strength is an outlier or the norm of this world, we cannot carelessly make the presence of Nazarick known to others. Until we gather more information, we must tread carefully."

"Are you really satisfied with just this much? I don't think the information we provided is very valuable at all," Kent asked with confusion.

After all, Cal had only asked about the basic geography of the area and the political powers of the region. Kent had been able to provide some insight into these topics as he discussed things like the Re-Estize Kingdom, the Baharuth Empire, the Slane Theocracy, and their respective ideologies. He hadn't gone too in-depth about each, but Cal was satisfied with the information.

He had been less helpful with the question about magic and other powers used by people. He knew very little of these matters so he was not able to reliably give out information.

"As I said, I am very lost so this information was very useful," Cal said as he stood up having just finished his meal.

He had eaten in a hurry after the entire family had shown vivid surprise to see his face when he removed his helmet. He knew he had gone overboard with the details in the character creation menu, but it was too late to do anything about it so he instead opted to eat as quickly as possible so he could retreat back to the protection of his helmet.

"Then is there anything else we could possibly do for-"

"More knights!"

That shout was all Cal needed to jump into action. Dashing out of the house he immediately caught sight of the incoming knights who were able to cover the nearby field with ease thanks to their horses. Cal relaxed as he spotted a completely different uniform on the newcomers, not only was the colors different but so was the aesthetic. These people were not from the same faction as the ones he had defeated, and his best guess was that these were soldiers from the Re-Estize Kingdom.

There were dozens of men, but Cal's senses did not react strongly to any of the Re-Estize knights, save one, the man leading the group.

He was a man perhaps in his early 30s, with a significantly large build that was a testament to his strength. Even at a glance, Cal could tell this man was significantly stronger than every other human he had faced until now.

"What happened here?" the unnamed warrior asked the nearby villagers.

"We have been attacked by Baharuth knights, but Sir Cal saved us!" the villager responded with glee as he pointed to Cal's nearby figure.

"Sir Cal? Nice to meet you," the man said after sizing him up while dismounting his horse, "I'm the Knight Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff."

'Captain Knight? I have no idea what type of position that is under the kingdom but it certainly sounds important and judging by the villagers' reaction, he is rather famous,' Cal thought as he approached the man who had extended his hand.

Taking it into a firm handshake, Cal introduced himself, "Nice to meet you as well, you can just call me Cal."

Gazef nodded and continued, "I am under the orders of the king to scout out the area to find out who has been attacking villages and put a stop to them, so I must thank you for doing a service to the Kingdom."

Cal was pleasantly surprised to see such sincerity in the warrior's thanks, as though he was thankful from the bottom of his heart that Cal had been able to save the villagers in his stead. Cal had been expecting the knights and the nobility to be rather snobby since they were always displayed like that in the stories with this type of setting.

"There is no need to thank me, I only did what I thought was right," Cal replied while the Captain Knight oversaw the numerous dead knights still in the center of the village.

"Was that your handiwork? I can't say I approve of such brutality, but to deal with so many knights without getting hurt must mean you are quite strong," Gazef commented.

The villagers grew tense at these words. They had been unrepentant when they dealt out their justice, but when they had finished taking out their anger they had slowly come back to their senses and were naturally uncomfortable with the outcome of the punishment they gave to the knights.

"No, I simply captured the knights," Cal explained, "I let the villagers deal with them after the fact."

Gazef then turned to look at the still unburied bodies of the villagers who had lost their lives during the attack, "I understand, still I appreciate-"

"Captain Stronoff, the whole village has been surrounded by enemies!"

The announcement of danger had everyone in the village, including the Kingdom knights, grow tense. It seemed that danger was closely following this village, but Cal was of a different mindset.

'Really? I thought I would get to see more relaxing times now that I had saved a village, but more enemies? Why? Fighting these guys isn't even all that fun since there's no challenge. There's no sense of adventure,' he lamented in his head.

Even though he thought that, he had no intention of leaving the village to its fate so he decided to follow Gazef along with his men to the edge of the village where they would observe the encirclement they were up against.

"Hold," came the warning of one of Gazef's men.

With that word, Cal looked up ahead to see several men with distinct armor which was different from both the Re-Estize knights as well as the Baharuth armor he was familiar with.

'A third party? With such convenient timing? No… It's too convenient,' Cal began to think back to the interrogation he had with what he then assumed to be Baharuth soldiers and started to put the pieces together.

'This was a trap, and since there doesn't seem to be any value on this village and I am an unknown then their target must be...'

"It's the Slane Theocracy," Gazef explained, "They're the only ones who would have so many magic casters with the ability to summon angels. I am afraid I have dragged this village and you, Cal, into a rather messy affair."

Cal nodded as he had come to the same conclusion, this whole situation had been a plan to lure the Captain Knight to this remote region to deal with him, and judging by the information he had received from Kent, he correctly guessed this new faction was the Slane Theocracy.

"I hate to ask this of you after you saved Carne Village in our stead, but would you be willing to be employed as a mercenary for this coming fight?" Gazef asked with a neutral face, "I assure you that the Kingdom will reward you handsomely for any help you can afford us."

Cal had every intention of helping out since he wasn't liking the odds Gazef's men had against this new enemy, not to mention that if Gazef lost then he would still have to fight the men from the Slane Theocracy since he doubted they would leave the village alone.

"There's no need to ask, I am more than willing to help you," Cal responded with a determined face, "I don't know how your men fight, but I will fill in any gaps that I can and support you that way, is that fine?"

Gazef smiled at his reply, "Thank you again, Cal, I am certain we will be in dire need of any help at this point. Please use one of our spare horses."

Taking a cue from his body's innate riding talent, Cal was able to easily mount the horse offered to him and ride to the back of the group to get into position.

"Listen, men, we will try to pierce the encirclement by punching through it," Gazef began to explain his battleplan, "I will try to draw the most attention so the circle thins out and you will use that opportunity to break their formation and escape. The most important thing is for one of us to get word of this out to the capital, understood?"

"Yes sir!" came the unified shout of a well-trained military unit.

As the group began to ride out at top speed to the edge of the encirclement, Cal was able to see the enemies begin to gather up to intercept Gazef in particular, which validated their theories that they were here after him.

The first enemies that approached the group were several armored men with white metallic angel wings, beings that Cal had identified as the summons of the magic casters that were safely in the distance.

Wanting to obtain a weapon that would be effective against something holy like an angel, Cal lamented that there was no opposite to holy damage in Elden Ring, at least nothing explicit. The only candidate in his head was death blight, but there were problems with that as well.

For starters, death blight only worked against other tarnished and he was sure that at the very least these enemies were not from the same world he was, much less tarnished. Then there was the selection of items that could deal death blight, an admittedly limited arsenal.

'Wait, why are spells like Fia's Mist still in my inventory? A common theme of missing items from my inventory is that things without a function were removed like multiplayer items, so why are spells like Fia's Mist still with me?'

It would only make sense if items that use death blight stayed if it was something that could be used in this world. Taking that gamble, he decided to silently equip the Prince of Death's Staff while he went over all his death sorceries.

At the same time that Cal began his preparations for battle, Gazef, and his men had already started to engage the mechanical angels in the front. Although the summons were definitely stronger than Gazef's men, the Captain Knight was having little trouble dispatching the flying enemies.

Using special moves that were unique compared to his men, Gazef was able to cleave through the angels with ease. And even though his men were struggling, they had chosen to stay with Gazef even though he had ordered them to disperse when the enemy encirclement had broken. Cal could tell that this group was not a ragtag team set up by the government, but a group that trusted each other and would not abandon their own. Traits that Cal greatly respected.

Carefully observing for any opportunities he could use to jump in and help out, Cal was beginning to believe his help might not even be necessary.

"Amazing…" the man who appeared to be the enemy leader spoke loud enough for Cal to hear him, "However, this is the limit of your strength."

Using these words as a signal, six enemy soldiers undid their angel summons and grouped to shoot out a beam made out of holy magic with practiced precision. The sudden shift in battle strategy caught Gazef off guard and he was unable to move his horse fast enough to get out of the way.

One fraction of a second before the powerful magic struck Gazef, a dark blur shot out from behind the Re-Estize Kingdom knights and landed between the Captain Knight and the incoming attacks.

Faster than anyone could react, Cal activated his Erdtree Greatshield's skill to generate a barrier large enough to not only protect himself and Gazef but every other Re-Estize knight behind him from any potential attack.

The intervention had occurred too fast for anyone to react and the holy energy beams directed at Gazef were harmlessly absorbed by the shield before six new similar attacks were rebounded with several times the strength of the initial attacks back to the Slane Theocracy casters.

These rebounded spells were much more massive than what the Slane Theocracy had used on Gazef, and, unfortunately for the Slane Theocracy, faster too. There was no time to dodge and every single caster that attacked Gazef was instantly pulverized by Cal's Golden Retaliation.

Silence filled the field as both the Slane Theocracy soldiers and the Re-Estize knights stared in shock at the sudden turn of events. It was only natural, after all, as even the Kingdom's treasures could not hope to create such a strong effect as the shield that Cal held.

For the Re-Estize knights, this was a surprise to be sure, so they could only look on in awe at the display of strength. For the Slane Theocracy, it was an unforeseen danger, as they had not been expecting to see any real resistance aside from Gazef.

However, one man was able to keep his wits about him despite his shock, Gazef quickly began to snap his men out of their stupor, "Don't let up! Use this opportunity!"

At his words, the battle instantly resumed and the sounds of fighting were established once more. Gazef was shocked, but he was a soldier of the Kingdom before anything, so he would not let this chance to win escape him.

Another man, the captain of the Sunlight Scripture, regained his senses too as he readied himself for battle by summoning his own angel, Principality Observation, while questioning the unknown variable that was Cal, "Who are you?"

Cal observed the new summoned angel and noted that it looked stronger than what the other summoners used. It certainly looked more regal, as it held four mechanical wings and was armed with a small shield and, what he assumed to be, a staff for casting.

Which was another thing he had noted that was proof that wherever he was, he was not in Elden Ring. After all, he was not able to cast any sorceries or incantations without the proper catalyst, whether that was a staff or a seal. However, the people of this world had been able to cast magic without any tools so far, which made the staff this new angel carried stand out.

'Are staffs used to buff magic in this world? Or do they serve another function?'

He wanted to experiment a bit, but he couldn't afford to have Gazef and his men be injured while he played around so he instead moved to end things as quickly as he could.

Gazef on the other hand had not stopped fighting the endless waves of angels that were being summoned. Although his men had been able to stop angels, it was only when several of them ganged up against a single angel and even then they were not able to kill them, only stop them.

Even Gazef was struggling against the foes when he didn't use the special techniques Cal had observed him display.

"Cal, I leave this to you," Gazef shouted as he bisected another angel that was attacking his soldiers, "I need to help my men."

Without waiting for a reply, the captain knight continued to get further away from Cal and Nigun's confrontation.

Cal observed the enemy captain, he seemed to be calm even now as the tides of the battle were turning against him. Which either meant he was a fool, or he had some trump card to turn things around even at this stage.

Even though this man was his enemy, Cal was still nothing but well-mannered, "You can call me Cal," he introduced himself without lowering his shield and his staff.

Nigun eyed both carefully as he spoke, "Cal, is it? You can call me Nigun, and well, you are in luck. We were sent here to kill the Captain Knight, so if you leave we will have no obligation to chase you," he stated with honesty in his voice, "Furthermore, since you do not wear the uniform of the Re-Estize Kingdom, I assume you have no responsibility to them, so why fight in this battle at all?"

Nigun had a point, Cal would freely admit, however, the situation was not so simple, "You're not wrong, I have no allegiance to the Re-Estize Kingdom, and the fight between two nations is not something that I have any interest in, but things change when innocents are put in the crossfire."

At his words, Nigun's gaze hardened, "You are like Gazef Stronoff, then? I swear that type of mindset is what will get you people killed. You could have left here and lived a full life in peace, but instead, you choose to remain here to die for the sake of a few villagers? You are a fool. Die."

'Negotiations have broken down, though I already expected that. Having a rational discussion with an individual that is fully ready to massacre several villages for a military advantage was a pipedream to begin with.'

The more sophisticated angel shot out to defend its master but quickly came to a halt about halfway to Cal's position. Raising its large staff, the angel began to cast a spell as holy light gathered in front of it.

Not feeling any real danger from this angel, Cal quickly moved to attack without worrying too much about being hit.

Keeping an eye on the angel, Cal was pleased to see that there was a very obvious visual cue that the spell was about to attack so he waited until the last second to quickly roll out of the way while hiding his figure from Nigun by standing directly in front of his summoned angel.

Cal had already figured out that these summons were not exactly autonomous and needed the direct supervision of the casters to operate. Staying out of the view of Nigun would greatly diminish his combat effectiveness.

Sure enough, it was an effective technique to fight these summoners, but ultimately unneeded for someone so weak.

"Rancorcall!"

Using his staff, Cal summoned the skulls of vengeful spirits encased in black flames which shot out with macabre laughter as they hunted down Nigun's Angel. The summon barely had time to bring up its small shield to stop the death sorcery, but it was for naught as the spell instantly combusted in a large explosion of pure death.

The large spell caused the battle in the field to stop once again as the Nigun's angel fell to the ground motionless while the black flames brought out a sickly illumination that gave off a feeling of dread to those that witnessed it.

"What is this… There's no way!" Nigun was in disbelief that his own summon had been felled so easily with a single spell, especially one that he had never heard of. Knowing that he was in a bad position, he reached into his coat to pull out a large crystal, "I didn't think I would be forced to use this, but you have only yourself to blame for this!"

Understanding that this was the trump card that kept Nigun so calm so far, Cal had no intention of letting him use whatever he held in his hand. Switching his Erdtree Greatshield for a Falchion, Cal was there next to Nigun in an instant, and faster than anyone could react, he severed Nigun's hand from his body with a swift swing of his blade.

"AHH, YOU STUPID SAVAGE!" Nigun fell to his knees as he gripped his bleeding stump which had been his right hand only a moment prior.

The crystal he was holding fell harmlessly away from him and landed near Cal's feet.

Before Nigun was able to do anything else, Cal held the Falchion next to his neck as a not subtle threat, "Give up."

The unforeseen turn of events left Nigun stupefied, and the hope of retaliation left his eyes. Acknolewdgeinng this as a non-verbal surrender, Cal looked on to see Nigun's men follow suit as they lost the will to fight now that their leader had been subdued.

The battle was over.

AN: This was supposed to be done yesterday, but I could not find where to bring this chapter to a close (my original goal was to end things around 5k but the chapter just kept getting longer).

I appreciate the people that reached out about being a beta reader for this story, it means a lot that people wanted to help me out with this but I can't say that I have any good experience with beta readers so I'll continue to work on this by myself for now.

Things are not too different from canon right now, but as we go along the changes will become more prominent (hopefully). I had a lot of problems with how this chapter ended up but it's better to post it now than to stress over it so have fun!

Anyway thanks for reading!