Chapter 6

"Oh! Wasn't this the place we woke up in?" I pointed towards the screen excitedly, while Sellen sat with her head against my shoulder, making herself comfortable.

I had told her not to do it because I would likely rage playing this game sooner rather than later, but she insisted, so I just shrugged and prepared an 'I told you so' in my mind, ready for the inevitable.

"Mm-hm, a bit different, but I can spot the resemblance, smaller though," Sellen nodded.

"And not as dark, I could only see properly when I started using my eye power," I said as I controlled my character on the screen, testing the input and various controls, destroying chairs and generally being goofy.

"I don't remember there being a dead woman inside, though. Do you?" Sellen remarked curiously as her hands wrapped around my chest, a sigh of contentedness leaving her lovely lips.

I directed my character, which apparently was called "Tarnished", towards the slumped dead woman closer, her figure glowing slightly.

"Nope, definitely would have seen that," I answered.

Then I continued to play the game while Sellen watched from the sidelines, sometimes giving commentaries, getting knocked out of her comfortable spot when I inevitably died, got annoyed, and finally sat up on her own properly.

And I did die so many times, the consequences of never having played this type of game..

"What's with the controls?! Why are they so hard to kill?!"

"Fuck! this game is stupid.."

"Come on! That was one hit!"

"Argh! Lock the fuck on properly, you stupid thing!"

"Whoa, pretty lady! I hope she's a capture target!" I exclaimed upon seeing a woman claiming to offer an accord.

Sellen chuckled and rolled her eyes from my side.

"Am getting stun-locked! How is that fair?!"

"Oops, didn't mean to attack you.."

"Oh, a wolf man! Cool!"

"Why do I roll like that?!"

"This stamina thing doesn't make sense.."

"The mute cavalry is so much weaker in-game," I said.

"But also harder to kill," Sellen remarked casually.

She didn't mean that as an insult. She didn't mean that as an insult. I recited the mantra over and over again while my character went flying again by the golden-armored Sentinel. Well, fuck you too!

"Who's Margitt?.."

"That's Morgott, dearest,"

"Who?"

"He's cheating! HOW THE HELL.."

"Phase two?!"

"YEEEAAAHHHH! I WON BIIIT-"

And then we found Sellen's secret hiding cave.

I let my character drag the metal door up, while rat corpses littered behind him.

I asked her about the giant rats. She told me it was for camouflage, no one would expect a venerable Sorceress such as herself would be hiding behind a place infested by such disgusting creatures.
Smart woman, I decided.

Sellen frowned as the guy on the screen finished opening the door up, "That, once again, a mistake this game of yours make, showing more bits of false knowledge, your character should have been blasted away from the door."

"What? Why?" I asked confused.

"Oh you know, the trap I put into the metal." Sellen casually answered.

"Huh."

My character talked with the woman inside...
Sellen harrumphed, "Hmph, I don't recognize this impostor, who is that? What is she even doing? Why did she act like nothing's wrong?" More rant, "Apprentice? Just to a random nobody? No! Just, no!"

She kept going like that the entire time we had something to do with her in-game equivalent, while I chuckled amusedly the whole time, which went over Sellen's head as she was too focused on being offended by her character in the game.

Sellen placed a cup of coffee in front of the dining table while I browsed my company phone. I had sold the first monster we fought in this world, which netted me a grand total of 6 credits. Wonderful.

I also let out the Kaiden and the Tree Sentinel after the binding finished. As expected, they were loyal as could be as a retinue of mine. After I asked, they decided they wanted to stay outside the Kamui dimension, so I let them patrol the perimeter of our house. Though there wasn't much to be patrolled, as I only had about 3 meters of extended space connected from my house outside of it.

"Thank you, love," I said distractedly, while reaching a hand for the cup.

She kissed me on the cheek as an answer.

It had been a laidback three days while we stayed in our home.

Sometimes playing games, mostly to broaden my knowledge of Elden Ring, other times rutting like animals in heat, or just enjoying each other's company.

Sellen sat at the other side of me, nursing her own cup of coffee, which she took a liking to after I introduced it to her on the morning of our first day here. Her face was contemplative, again; it had been like this some times since we began playing Elden Ring and getting the full scope of the revelation that followed.

Including, but not limited to, the fact that I actually worked for some higher entity so much stronger, bigger, and wider in scope than what she knew as the Outer Gods.

She couldn't deny my original claim the longer we played through the game. The fact that her world was documented, created by the mind of someone, and was entertainment in another part of the universe was a big revelation, to say the least.

I tried to tell her about a saying I had been thinking about since I became a contractor, the one about fictions and how it exists somewhere out there. But it didn't make it better, just added a touch more reality to the mix.

I dropped my phone and grasped her hands in mine, smiling at her as she looked up.

She returned mine, "The study of life and existence, what a joke," she shook her head, her tone bitter.

"Well, maybe it does contain those secrets in this universe," I said with a shrug.

"Maybe, dearest. But it used to be all I knew," she muttered, "I spent centuries studying them; in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter," she chuckled humorlessly.

Then she brightened herself considerably, "But I guess.. it's also an opportunity."

"How is that?" I asked with a tilt of my head, though I already had an idea of where the conversation was going, I just loved to hear her talk, especially after all the bouts of sudden gloomy expression she made at random times of the day.

"What do you mean, How, my dearest?" Sellen frowned her brow, her tone a bit incredulous, "You! The chance to travel to another.. universe! To learn its secrets, to see new things, go to wondrous places, and pry open what it's hiding inside, or even to accrue more power! It's all a possibility for us!" She finished, her tone building to excitement toward the end.

I guess she decided she was done with all the dark thoughts. That was good. Though she did have this slightly worrying streak of wanting to know about secrets...

"Pathetic," was all Sellen said as she gazed at the screen, where a mass of head statues in the shape of a giant ball hovered over the Academy library. Her own face was carefully blank.

I pressed a button on the controller.

"U...urgh. M-my...apprentice...I-I'm..." I heard from our TV, coming from the grotesque ball, the voice was weak, and uncannily familiar with that of Sellen's own.

"Let us go back to the real world," Sellen said as she stood up and hastily walked toward the middle of the room, where a strand familiar to what the site of grace looked like. She stood there, impatiently looking at me who was still sitting on the couch, staring at her across it.

"No. We'll stay here one more day," I sternly stated, she opened her mouth, probably to deny, but I didn't let her, "I want to rest on a bed a last time before going out," I said simply, but we both knew that wasn't the real reason.

Her lips closed instantly, she nodded, then walked toward our room.

I heard the door being opened and closed as I shut off the game.

It had been a week. Sellen insisted we follow the story of her own character in the game, and we did just that. Which did ultimately result in me fighting this famous General Radahn.

That was so cool, though I dreaded the day if I actually had to fight him myself; I imagined he would be stronger in real life, as with the case with the Tree Sentinel, which didn't have a lick of magic at all other than brute strength in game.

But all that didn't matter at the moment; Sellen just witnessed her.. end.. her original fate I could say.

I shook my head and went toward our room; I saw Sellen lying on our bed, facing the other way.

I climbed on and hugged her from behind.

I knew she hadn't slept yet, but we just stayed silent glued to each other like that for a long time.

As my eyes were beginning to get heavy, Sellen finally spoke up.

"I'm pregnant."

That managed to erase any trace of drowsiness from my body.

I mean, how should you respond to that? Especially after what she just witnessed?

"Oh.. that's.. how did you know?" I asked dumbly, my arms tightening around her body, hoping the gesture helped convey my feeling regarding the news.

"With my magic," She murmured without moving.

"Hm.. that's good..? Should we take that year-long vacation?" Fuck, this was hard.

She chuckled slowly, but there wasn't an ounce of humor in it.

"No, Aaron.. I just want.. to go out.. for a bit," she followed a bit haltingly, even her tone was.. blank, to say the least, "if that is okay with you, just to clear my mind."

"Of course, love! Whatever you want to do!" I said.

She chuckled once again, silence dominating the room for a moment after that, "I don't know, maybe capture that maiden you keep meeting in the game? Melina?" A bit of color finally managed to find her tone, though it was faint.

"Naah, she'll come to us, I'm sure, but what do you want to do, though?" I asked instead.

"Anything, as long as we're doing it together,"

I was silent for a second, but then decided to just roll with it, "Okay, then we're going to have a threesome with her,"

She snorted, "shameless man, let's rest, I'm tired,"

I giggled before I followed her words.

My Sharingan was active as soon as we came back to the Lands Between.

Hoping Melina really was waiting for us, she was a bit of an enigma in the game. But what I knew was that she was following and spying on the Tarnished before she met them. So I assumed she had been doing the same thing to us while in her spirit form.

And I was proven right, as I looked around the clearing with my eyes. Though I didn't expect to see her just after arriving, surely she didn't wait a week for us to come back?

But there she was, and Torrent, I guess, both invisible to the naked eye, just two bundles of energy on a clearing to the side of where this site of grace was located, in their spirit form as expected.

I focused my gaze on their position, "come out, I can see you,"

She appeared in glittering yellow light after a moment, but Torrent decided not to show itself.

Melina, cute girl, brown-haired, one-eyed adorned with a tattoo and was always closed, walked forward slowly toward us, her robe billowing in the gentle wind.

She stopped a few meters before me and Sellen, then kneeled, her head bowed slightly toward the ground, "My Lord."

Wait what? What's with the special treatment? I didn't remember her calling my character that?